The Lord Provost of Glasgow has apologised to councillors over the claims for expenses that she says she should not have claimed.
Eva Bolander said she will now pay some of the money back.
She said all claims were within the rules and claimed in good faith.
READ MORE: Glasgow's Lord Provost claims £8,000 on clothing and beauty treatments
In a letter to councillors Ms Bolander, said: " In submitting claims, I have always tried to ask myself the question, ‘would I require this if I were not Lord Provost?’ Each has been made in good faith and scrupulously accounted for, within the rules.
"Although the spending incurred was within the rules, on reflection, there are items which I should not have chosen to reclaim.
"I am sorry about that and I am in discussion with financial services to come to an arrangement to repay the relevant expenditure."
It was revealed she had claimed for haircuts, nail treatments underwear and hosiery as well as coats, hats, gloves and 23 pairs of shoes.
The bill totalled £8000 over two years from an allowance for the Civic Head worth £5000 a year to assist in carrying out public duties.
Read the full text of the letter below:
Dear Colleague
As Lord Provost I am privileged to represent and advocate for Glasgow, its communities and people at hundreds of events – from local gala days to diplomatic events and solemn occasions such as Remembrance Sunday.
Over the first two-and-a-half years of my term, I have been proud to be able to open up the city’s civic functions to new groups and events; including volunteers, community councillors, LGBT Pride and Black History Month.
It has always been recognised that the role of Lord Provost carries an additional cost, taking place as it does almost entirely in the public eye.
However, the role of First Citizen must be open to any elected member of the Council. I hope we can all agree that it is appropriate to ensure that members who might take on this position are not excluded from doing so by not having the resources to carry out the role.
In submitting claims, I have always tried to ask myself the question, ‘would I require this if I were not Lord Provost?’ Each has been made in good faith and scrupulously accounted for, within the rules.
Although the spending incurred was within the rules, on reflection there are items which I should not have chosen to reclaim.
I am sorry about that and I am in discussion with financial services to come to an arrangement to repay the relevant expenditure.
Eva Bolander
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel