THE car used by the Lord Mayor of Swansea has been sold after racking up more than £8,000 of servicing and maintenance costs in less than two years.
The Lord Mayor, Cllr Peter Black, is now being driven around in a hired Ford Mondeo.
Council chiefs had opted to buy the previous car – a VW Phaeton – after leasing it between 2011 and 2017, as they said that was the most cost-effective option after the lease came to end.
The authority had been paying £8,800 per year to lease the vehicle and bought it for £9,075, excluding VAT, in December 2017.
But servicing and maintenance costs, which were previously covered via the lease, have mushroomed in recent months.
Between April 1 and August 31 this year, these costs reached £4,561, taking the total to £8,427 since the purchase.
The figures for the cost of running the civic vehicle, which follows a Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporter Service, do not include the driver’s salary.
The Lord Mayor of Swansea is regularly on the move attending functions and helping to promote good causes.
Cllr Black and his wife, Angela, are supporting the charities Unity in Diversity, Crisis and Llys Nini as part of the Lord Mayor’s charity fund this year.
The council confirmed that buying the VW Phaeton in 2017 had been the best option.
It added: “However, in the past year, the maintenance costs of the car has increased due to its age and mileage.
“Consequently, the vehicle has been sold and a hire car is being used in the interim while the council finds a replacement which will comply with the council’s green fleet policy.”
This means a longer-term replacement could be a hybrid or electric car.
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