Taxpayers are footing the £2,658-a-night bill for the judges' lodgings at Telscombe, according to an investigation by local Lib Dem MP Norman Baker which also reveals the accommodation cost has more than doubled from £1,216-a-night in 1997-8.
Information disclosed by the Treasury to Mr Baker shows that the Telscombe lodgings were used just 60 times in 2001-2 at a staggering cost of £159,481. This works out at £2,658-a-night, more than double the cost per night in 1997-8:
Year Cost per night
1997-98 £1,216
1998-99 £1,093
1999-2000 £1,190
2000-01 £1,426
2001-02 £2,658
Mr Baker's investigation also uncovered that taxpayers are paying for a chauffeur driven car to ferry judges on the 5 mile trip between Telscombe and Lewes Crown Court - to the tune of £14,924 last year.
The chauffeur driven service for 2001-2 alone costs more than 60 nights in the luxury double suite at Shelley's Hotel, the best hotel in Lewes, which works out at just £14,100 in peak season. The government spent nearly nine times that amount on maintaining judges at Telscombe instead.
Norman Baker also quizzed Treasury Minister Yvette Cooper on the number and cost of dinner parties held by judges at Telscombe, only to be told the government doesn't hold this information. Regulations permit judges to hold one formal lunch and one dinner party a week, with numbers invited "expected to be modest".
A Parliamentary Question from 22 November 2000 revealed that the judges' lodgings at Telscombe employed a manager/cook, an assistant housekeeper and 2 domestic servants at a cost of over £57,000 per annum.
Speaking about the judges' lodgings at Telscombe, Norman Baker says:
"Judges are being put up for the night at Telscombe and chauffeur driven to court at immense cost to the taxpayer. Why can't they stay in a local hotel for a fraction of the price and use a taxi to get to court?"
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