Parish Council Votes To Buy Motorhome For Civic Use

Stourgate Parish Council has voted to purchase a motorhome for civic use, to be made available for community events and to visiting officials, at a cost of £147,500.

The vehicle, a Palatine Leisure Sovereign 780 Platinum Edition, will be bought from Dunton Motorhomes. Council documents show the price included a number of optional extras: a hot tub, an integrated home cinema system, gold-plated bathroom fixtures, a wine cooler, underfloor heating throughout, and a satellite dish capable of receiving over 400 channels.

Councillor Helen Saunders, who owns the dealership, declared an interest and recused herself from the discussion and the vote. The remaining councillors voted 5-1 in favour.

Councillor Peter Wragg, the sole dissenting vote, questioned whether the council needed a motorhome at all, let alone one costing more than seven times its entire annual budget of £20,000. “We can’t afford a task force but apparently we can afford this,” he said.

Asked where the money would come from, councillors offered a range of suggestions. Councillor Roger Pilbeam floated selling Stourgate Community Hospital, while another, who asked not to be named, suggested reintroducing some form of work scheme for local schoolchildren to bring in additional revenue. A third option, raised informally after the meeting and not recorded in the minutes, was reportedly to “just take one” from a dealership rather than pay for it outright. The council said the purchase would ultimately be funded from underspend elsewhere in this year’s budget, though did not specify which areas.