IN relation to councillors travelling expenses, it is fundamental that a councillor, or paid official, travelling on council business can only claim for the actual number of miles travelled.

Indeed, the guidance issued to councillors by the county council confirms that mileage claims should be made in respect of the shortest reasonable route and should be stated by reference to whole mile odometer readings.

District councillor Owen Philp correctly claims that Coun Lello's mileage from her home to County Hall is 34 miles for the return trip. A "sat nav" check confirms that the actual distance from the County Hall roundabout, via Chyverton Cross to Coun Lello's postcode address is 16.2 miles.

County council officials admit that at one time they gave guidance that the round trip mileage from Truro to Hayle was 42 miles and while the "sat nav" mileage from Truro city centre to Foundry Square, Hayle, records 20.3 miles (incidentally travelling via Shortlanesend), the county council guidance also makes it clear that the mileages quoted are from town centre to town centre and that actual mileages to specific destinations may be slightly different. In fact the "sat nav" distance to Foundry Square, Hayle, from County Hall, via Chyverton Cross is recorded as exactly 18 miles - some three miles less than the council's figure from Truro city centre.

Coun Lello must, undoubtedly, have been aware that she, and only she, was personally responsible for certifying that her claims for her travelling expenses were accurate. She must have been fully aware that when submitting claims for 42 miles she was not travelling from Hayle to Truro City Centre but from Connor Downs to County Hall, a significantly shorter distance. The question also has to be asked why she, apparently, never checked her mileometer as required by the county council's procedures. This would have immediately given her the accurate information on which to base her claim. The fact that she has repaid £257 (incidentally the minimum amount which the internal audit identified), is a clear admission of wrongdoing.

Questions also need to be asked as to why Coun Lello's claims reduced successively from 42 to 40 and then 38 miles, when a check of her mileometer would have recorded an actual 32.4 miles for the round trip.

County Hall officials have also been found wanting. They appear to have misled councillors by indicating that the return mileage from County Hall to Hayle is 42 miles when modern navigation aids show it to be 36 miles. Even now your report suggests that they are using a figure of 36.7 miles from Coun Lello's home when the true figure is 32.4. Coun Lello's home is only 3.3 miles from the slip road on to the A30 at Reskadinnick and it would be fatuous if she were to argue that there is a substantial saving of time by travelling 1.4 miles in the wrong direction to join the A30 at Loggans roundabout - which, incidentally, is frequently congested.

Something is clearly very wrong when a councillor can claim, and be paid, travelling expenses on the basis of a return journey of 42 miles when the actual distance travelled was less than 34 miles. Coun Lello attempts to blame the officials for allowing this to happen and, in turn, the officials try to blame the system. But at the end of the day, it was the responsibility of Coun Lello to carefully record her mileages and to submit an accurate claim. She has been found wanting and, as a matter of honour, at the very least, she should now repay the full £800 originally queried by the council.

Edward Carlyon, Truro