BARROW councillors are able to claim £18 for their dinner and up to £150 for a stay in a London hotel when on council business, according to newly-updated expenses guidelines.

On Wednesday the borough council's executive committee agreed to increase the amount its councillors and employees could claim for food and travel mileage.

The policy surrounding travel and subsistence claims has not been updated since November 2011. On that basis the council moved to bring their expenditure rules in line with 2017 prices.

The amount which can be claimed for a hotel and meal allowances when in London has been raised by £10 to £150; the same increase has been applied for hotel and food expenses outside of the capital to £130.

Staff could claim 10.6p per mile when driving for training purposes however the council agreed to scrap that rate in favour of a single 40p "casual" rate.

Councillor Brendan Sweeney said: "I would note that the 40p a mile is less than the rate that HMRC says it takes to run a car."

Leader of the council Dave Pidduck said: "A lot of councillors or officers if you have to travel to London for example, you leave in the morning on the early train rather than stay in London. Our officers are conscious about allowances."

Phil Huck, executive director for the council, added: "Our officers are very aware of the pressure that is on the council."

Cllr Pidduck jokingly said the council and its staff could "live in London" for the amount of courses they could take there. But, said the council would rather train locally and save thousands in expenses claims.

The amount employees could claim for breakfast and lunch remained the same at £5 and £7 respectively. The amount that could be claimed for an evening meal was increased from £12 to £18 - a reflection on the average amount claimed for dinner.

To cut down on late claims there will be a cut-off period of three months. This was meant to reduce the number of late claims which proved difficult to verify by the council's finance department.