TEST Valley Borough Council spent more than £130,000 in postage and stationery costs in the last financial year, new figures show.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has shown that the borough council has spent £106,375 on postage and £25,108 on stationary – a total of £131,483.

The figures, which relate to the 2021/2022 financial year, show a decrease in spending from the 2020/2021 financial year where a total of £145,640 were spent on postage and stationery.

Former Andover Town councillor Richard Kidd originally requested the information and called cutting the borough council's postage costs “a step in the right direction”.

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He continued: “It looks as though the council is cutting especially postage costs which is a good thing, but they still need to get things down further in my opinion.”

A spokesperson for the borough council said: “We are always looking to keep our costs as low as possible while ensuring we maintain the same level of service to residents.

"We work with communities to promote initiatives such as e-billing, which helps to reduce our postage costs and has a positive impact on the environment.

“There will always be some variation in our expenditure, depending on what is required in any given year, but our overarching aim is to identify savings and drive down costs where we can.”