Don't blink, but council's photo bill was £38,868

Because figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show Lisburn City Council forked out more than 38,000 last year on promotional photography.

Their total of 38,868 more than any other council area per head of population.

The figures show 1,107 was spent photographing a visit by Prince Andrew, while the cost of pictures of one employee's retirement dinner came to 304. The photographs taken were from events such as civic dinners, launches, seminars and promotional material.

Among the figures were 508 for a Junior Primary Schools Swimming Gala, a charity presentation for the Haiti Appeal and free bus passes for Romanian children both cost 152.28, whilst photographing the now defunct Transition Committee meeting cost 300. Meanwhile, photographing National Meetings Week cost 202 and a high-visibility vest event at a local primary school was 293.

The figures revealed that Belfast City Council spent the most at 61,349. However, that was lower per head of population than Lisburn. Derry City Council's spend was 13,993, whilst Newry and Mourne Council, which has a comparable population to Lisburn, spent just 970 on photography and Ballymoney Council, who use their own digital camera, spent nothing.

A spokesperson for Lisburn City Council said that its initiatives which used promotional photography had helped generate thousands of pounds in revenue for local businesses.

They added: "The 2009/10 costs of 38,868.60 account for 0.12% of the total Council annual spend. Lisburn City Council, as the second largest local authority in the Province, has consistently held the lowest city council position on the district rates league table since 2002; and is currently 25th out of all the 26 Councils in the league table.

"The Council has already looked into the cost of directly employing a staff photographer however this would not be a cost efficient measure.

"The Council is currently considering efficiencies across all of its services."

Lisburn Councillor, Ronnie Crawford, who was Mayor for some of the time included in the break-down of expenditure said he was surprised at the cost.

"We never knew," he said. "The point I would make if that these figures refer to Lisburn's 400th Anniversary year when there were a lot of extra activities. We had the likes of the Game Fair in Moira, the Pipe Band European Championships, the Dundrod races and Horse racing at the Down Royal. We need to promote these events, which ultimately bring in extra people to the city and we get extra revenue from that, but it is something we have to look at."

He added: "We have got to look at ways and means of saving costs. It is a lot of money and we have got to look at the value we get for it and ways of reducing expenditure."