POLICE in North Yorkshire splashed out more than £35,000 on bottled water in three years, The Press can reveal.

Campaigners today attacked the spending, which was revealed in figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, although it has fallen significantly in the past 12 months.

Cash-strapped North Yorkshire Police spent £19,540.02 on water for its water-coolers in 2008/9, £12,494.18 in 2009/10 and £3,043.69 in 2010/11 – a total of £35,077.89 over the three years. The neighbouring force, Humberside Police, spent £8,045.42 in the same period.

Although the cost has fallen in the past two years, North Yorkshire Police was criticised by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

Its chief executive, Matthew Elliott, said paying for bottled water was an “unnecessary waste of money”, adding: “What is wrong with the tap?”

He said: “This certainly is a complete unnecessary waste. There is simply no case for any public-sector body to use bottled water when people can use tap water.

“Most taxpayers will view this as a complete waste of money and indeed many will be concerned about the environmental issues raised by using bottled water.”

North Yorkshire Police has to save £8.9 million to balance its books in 2011/12 and £19 million over the next four years. Between 300 and 350 staff will also be axed over the next few years as part of its response to Government budget cuts.

Employers have a legal duty to provide staff with drinking water in the workplace, but bottled water has a far higher carbon footprint than mains-fed water.

A litre of mains water creates about 0.0003kg of CO2, around 600 times less than the 0.185kg generated by a litre of Volvic or the 0.172kg produced by the same volume of Evian, according to figures from Yorkshire Water.

Water cooler bottles are also made from a type of plastic derived from oil, which is not recyclable and takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Mr Elliott said: “On both the cost and environmental effects this simply should not be happening.”

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police defended itself against the claims, saying: “The bottled water refers to water coolers in various police buildings.

“The force has stopped renewing contracts for them as a cost-saving measure, which is why the figure has reduced.”

York Press: The Press - Comment

A criminal price to pay for water

ONCE upon a time there was no such thing as designer water. When we were thirsty we filled a glass from the tap and it was just as cold as water from the fridge.

Many of us have bought bottled water ourselves – and been aghast to discover just how much money we are expected to part with for the privilege. Now it turns out that North Yorkshire Police have spent £35,000 on the stuff over the last three years.

The money has gone on running water coolers, and it has to be said that the police are not alone in this; many private companies have these fashionable items on the premises.

However, in the current economic hard times it is hard to justify this as a wise use of taxpayers’ money. We are gratified to see that the police have stopped renewing contracts for these costly machines and we’d like to see the costs continue to reduce – to zero.

After all, and especially in Yorkshire, was there ever any reason to have water coolers to start off with? We have some of the country’s finest water, so what’s wrong with workplaces providing disposable beakers and placing them next to the cold tap?

There’s nothing wrong with corporation wine.

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