CITY of York Council has recouped about £3 million paid out in VAT, council leader Andrew Waller has revealed.

He said the authority had taken part in a joint legal action with others across the country to recover VAT which had been paid to the Exchequer.

The requirement to make such payments was subject to interpretation and the challenge had been successful, with the returned money being used to improve the authority’s general finances and reduce pressures on council taxpayers.

Coun Waller spoke out about the action after Labour group leader James Alexander questioned the authority’s spending of £122,000 on legal fees over the past two months.

Coun Alexander said information disclosed under new rules had shown that almost £362,000 had also been spent on consultants, temporary staff and professional fees.

He said money had been spent at a time when the authority was cutting jobs and services, and suggested the Liberal Democrat administration could have been more “financially responsible”.

But Coun Waller claimed such comments revealed how little Coun Alexander knew about how the council operated.

He said some of the legal fees had paid for the action to recover the £3 million VAT.

Coun Waller said IT payments had also been made to ensure schools and libraries were connected to superfast broadband. “It will set the city up for skills training and jobs in the future and is a tremendous boost for our schools,” he said.

“It also pays for the traffic control systems and phones.”

Labour councillor Julie Gunnell said she welcomed the requirement for all payments of more than £500 to be published, under which the spending figures had emerged, and said: “I encourage the public to view the published spends by viewing york.gov.uk/council/information/opendata/”