BURNLEY Council has become the third local authority in Lancashire to publish a list of everything it has spent over £500 online.

The council has published details of its spending back to April 1 and follows in the footsteps of Pendle and Rossendale Council, which made the same information available earlier in the year.

All local authorities will have to follow suit by later next year after the Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, called on them to provide financial transparency.

Coun Charlie Briggs, leader of Burnley Council, said: “It is undoubtedly a good thing.

“It is going to take a lot of work, the council buys a lot of things for over £500, but it is good to be transparent.

“The Government have decided this is how it has got to be and it is fine by us because we don’t do anything wrong.

“It gives people the opportunity to see what the council is spending money on, and if they don’t like it they can get in touch with us and talk about it.

“We are happy to be open about it.”

The information reveals who was paid the money, the date they were paid it and what department it related to.

In November the council made six payments totalling £4,840.91 to Aspen Valley Boarding Kennels and Cattery, they spent £14,993 in the month on postal services from the Royal Mail, and in October they spent just over £30,000 on demolition work carried out by Stott Demolition.

The information will now be published on Burnley Council’s website every month showing spending for that month.

Baroness Hanham CBE, Minister for Communities and Local Government, said: “We are entering a new era of openness and transparency where all parts of Government are making information readily available to the public.

“We are already seeing how useful public data can be in everyday life, from moving home to choosing schools. The public have a right to see what their tax money is doing.”