Two Cheshire East councillors have asked to see credit and debit card statements for council spending above £500 after being told some details would not be posted on the website.

The council publishes all details of expenditure of more than £500 except that spent on purchase cards.

A report to Monday's meeting of the audit and governance committee stated card spending was now being made public but 'due to external supplier systems' the only information which could be provided was the amount, date, merchant category code and the supplier or retailer's name.

Committee vice chair David Marren (Shavington, Ind), who originally raised the matter, said: "It appears as though the detail will still be lacking and that is down perhaps I think to the finance house who run the software for the debit and credit cards.

"In terms of openness, why do we not just put copies of the credit and debit card payments on the website for people to look at if they wish to take the time and trouble to do that?"

Alex Thompson, director of finance and customer services, said: "As much information as we have, we think is now transparently available."

He said he could provide statements for Cllr Marren to see, adding they wouldn't be published online because sometimes they may contain personal information.

Cllr Patrick Redstone (Odd Rode, Con) said he too would like to see the statements and asked why personal information would be included if the cards were for council business.

Mr Thompson replied: "Obviously the council is an organisation that deals with an awful lot of clients and customers in different capacities, sometimes we make payments to individuals for service delivery."

He said there was no use of council resources by staff.

Of course, anyone can submit a Freedom of Information request to find these card payments.

But these take up to 20 working days, and are not instantly available for the people of Macclesfield to access.

See Also: Macclesfield: Almost seven grand of council ombudsman costs in four months.

Macclesfield: Have you signed up for our FREE Friday weekly newsletter? It contains each week's top 10 Macclesfield news stories, and one EXCLUSIVE article?

1060 of you have signed up already. Simply enter your email address in the shaded box below or on this link.

Free from pop-up ads, or unwanted surveys, Macclesfield Nub News is a quality online newspaper which produces 30-40 stories a week for our town.

You can find us on Facebook and Twitter.