A COUNCIL stands accused of taking the biscuit after it spent more than £1,000 last year on sweet treats for its members.

Figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act after a request by News Shopper, show last year Dartford Council spent £1,074 on biscuits for meetings and functions.

This was compared to £951 the year before - an increase of £123.

If the council spent its cookie fund wisely its members would have been able to scoff down 4,881 packets of economy digestive biscuits.

And if it shared out the sweet treats fairly, with an average of 20 biscuits a pack, each of the 44 councillors would get around 43 each week.

But, if it has been pushing the boat out, a packet of luxury chocolate biscuits would set it back £1.98 a time and would only buy 542 packs.

Council leader Councillor Jeremy Kite says spending around £24 a year on councilors was not the end of the world.

He said: "Many members come to meetings straight from work and don't get a chance to eat and we don't have a canteen in the civic centre.

"So we get hungry and have a cup of tea or a sandwich with a biscuit."

He added: "We don't have an agenda to get as many biscuits as we can. We just go out and buy them like anybody else."

Cllr Kite says he does not know why the figures have gone up but says it is probably to do with inflation.

He said: "My days are spent dealing with people who have real problems.

"I don't spend time thinking about how many biscuits we eat."