A town hall is saving £30,000 – by banning biscuits and drinks at meetings.

Bourbons, custard creams and Rich Tea will no longer be served at Salford council.

Tea and coffee have also been banned – but full refreshments will be served at civic events.

The move will affect 20,000 meetings each year.

Council bosses also propose saving £40,000 by not planting bulbs in civic parks and gardens.

Another £5,000 will be saved by reducing the number of agenda papers printed and investing in computers for up to ten councillors and senior officers.

A staff canteen at Turnpike House, which is a council depot on Eccles New Road, where binmen, trading standards officers, and housing officials are based, will be shut to save £16,000.The measures are part of a £12m package of cuts.

The council plans to raise £20,000 by introducing charges for the pest control of mice, cockroaches and bed bugs.

A council spokesman said of the biscuit ban: “We are proposing to no longer provide tea and coffee refreshments or biscuits for any of our internal meetings as they are not essential costs.

“At civic meeting or meetings involving visitors where there’s an expectation of a level of hospitality, these refreshments will be provided.”

He added: “We’ve looked at all of our pest control services and are proposing to bring fees in line with similar services that we already charge for. We don’t have to plant bulbs annually because we use ones that flower over a number of years.”

Coun Bill Hinds said: “We will end the financial year with balanced books as we do every year and with sufficient reserves to meet future contingencies.”

He added: “We’re continuing to deliver our efficiency programme and are on target to save more than £30m in three years.

“We’re making efficiencies rather than cuts to services and next year we hope to deliver around a further £12m of
efficiency savings to help us improve services for residents.”

The council’s annual spending is about £628m with £130m alone spent on schools.

Coun Norman Owen, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Salford, said: “It shows how tight things are if we are being reduced to cutting tea and refreshments.”