SAFFRON WALDEN: We pay £11,000 to tidy MP's garden

By pbaker

THE man likely to be MP for a chunk of Chelmsford after next year's General Election was at the centre of a storm over parliamentary expenses this week.

But Sir Alan Haselhurst says although he understands the public's reaction, he is not embarrassed for claiming more than £11,000 since 2004 for gardening bills, insisting he has "followed the rules".

It emerged that the 71-year-old Tory deputy speaker of the Commons, and MP for Saffron Walden since 1977, claimed £142,000 on his Duddenhoe End home over the past seven years despite not having a mortgage to pay.

And in the past year taxpayers coughed up £3,000 to pay for garden maintenance at his plush farmhouse home near Saffron Walden.

Taxpayers also paid for pea shingle for his drive, patio repairs, a new heating oil tank, roof re-tiling and an annual chimney sweep for £193.

He is just one of scores of MPs engulfed in the expenses scandal in which politicians have been exposed for working the system and using taxpayers' cash to maintain luxury lifestyles.

With boundary changes enforced at next year's poll Sir Alan is favourite to take over big parts of Chelmsford from fellow Conservative Simon Burns when West Chelmsford becomes an urban borough constituency.

Sir Alan's vast rural Saffron Walden seat will swallow Writtle, Broomfield, the Walthams and Boreham, plus parts of Tory Brooks Newmark's Braintree Constituency under the new boundaries rules.

Sir Alan has also had a rented flat in Dolphin Square, close to Westminster, since the 1970s.

He told the Chronicle: "I have claimed legitimately under the rules on advice of the fees office.

"I don't feel personally embarrassed but I can see that people will question it.

"I am now not charging for my constituency home but the rental on the flat I have maintained since 1973.

"When I became deputy speaker I was instructed by the fees office to use my constituency home for the additional cost allowance.

"There are still costs associated with a home in the constituency and people expect you to live there.

"Looking at what others have charged under the additional cost allowance I could have been encouraged to charge for things like a TV licence. I could have, but did not."

However, he admitted the system – slated in the press over the past week – needs urgent reform.

"There is obviously an urgent need to sort this out," he said.

"Some will say, perhaps legitimately, that we MPs have been caught out by events and should have tackled this a long time back.

"Even now it is not simple. We don't want a position where you can only become an MP if you are wealthy.

"The headlines a few weeks ago over plans to substitute salary for expenses said 'now they want another £24,000 a year.'

"But we have to decide what an MP is worth – an adult debate is needed.

"It is not something we should decide ourselves, it must be done independently. That has to be a lesson we have learned."