Tens of thousands of pounds have been spent ferrying Merton's mayor around the borough.

Through a Freedom of Information request, it was revealed that since 2015, £31,411 worth of taxpayers' money has been used getting the first citizen from point A to point B.

This included the 2016/17 purchase of a Ford Mondeo Hybrid for just less than £19,000.

The council says the cost was a necessity to help reduce air pollution in the borough.

"Changing the mayors car to a ‘hybrid’ type vehicle assists with this and our ambition to improve air quality and move towards a cleaner, greener borough," a council spokeswoman said.

"The decision to invest in a cost saving, environmentally friendly and efficient mode of transport for the mayor was in line with our commitment to increase the number of low emission vehicles in our general fleet."

Making up the rest of the money spent includes £5,621 for maintenance, £3,179 for fuel and £3,652 on leasing cars prior to the most recent purchase.

These costs came to light following an FOI sent to hundreds of UK councils by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

According to the group, 207 local authorities spent £4.5m on cars for mayors  lord mayors, lord provosts and and their equivalents since 2015.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers are tired of hearing local authorities say they have no money left when there are still instances of excessive spending.

“Some travel will of course be necessary to conduct duties but families who struggle to pay their council tax bill will roll their eyes at the thought of their hard-earned money being spent on Bentleys and Jaguars for politicians to attend functions.”

The council spokeswoman said the benefits of the purchase had already started to show.

"We have already started seeing a significant saving of almost 50 per cent on the maintenance and running costs such as insurance and fuel," she said.

"We are fortunate that regardless of inflation we are seeing a decrease in our expenditure on petrol.

"The figures represented in the freedom of information response reflect the capital spent on buying the new car in 2016/17 while in previous years the council has leased.”