TEST Valley Borough Council spent more than £200,000 in postage and stationery costs in a year.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed the borough council spent £153,109 on postage, and £49,789 on stationery – a total of £202,898.

The figures relate to the financial year 2015/16.

Richard Kidd, of Danegeld Close, originally requested the information and believes the costs could be cut down.

He said: “They could make more use of emails, in particular the postage. “It’s something that needs looking at.”

When asked about the figures, economic portfolio holder, Councillor Peter Giddings, said: “The council is always looking for ways to improve value for money.

“We have just completed a re-tendering exercise for stationery.

“The new contract will start on Wednesday, February 1 and it is expected that this will deliver savings of around 45 per cent per year on current costs.

“The postage costs were particularly high for the period requested as they included the postage costs for the General Election on May 7.

“Of the £153,000 cost, £98,000 relates to election costs and a large proportion of this is reclaimed from the government.”