Cllr Paul Robinson publishes his expenses

MPs fought tooth and nail to prevent their expenses being revealed. Now we can see why. Many of our elected representatives have been milking the taxpayer for years. Now they apologise because they have been caught out and desperately want to keep their jobs at the next general election.

As a result of the MPs' expenses revelations the BBC decided to come clean and publish the expenses of its senior executives. Many of those expenses were questionable, but at least the BBC has come clean without being forced to do so.

East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor Paul Robinson believes in transparency in local government and last month published his expenses claims for the last financial year. He is right in doing so and I wish there were many more like him. Now his constituents can decide whether he is good value for money and they now see how he spends their money.

I ask all councillors to follow Cllr Robinson's lead. We need more transparency. Come on councillors, let the light in.