COLCHESTER Council has apologised after it published false information which claimed millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money had been spent on ice cream and stationery.

A list of council spending previously published on the authority’s website included several payments which hadn’t occurred.

Among the spending over the past year which had been inaccurately reported were £1.1million on ice creams, £2.2million on stationery, and £5million on newspaper advertising.

The city council has now issued an apology to council tax payers, attributing the issue to a formatting error.

A spokesman said: “We sincerely apologise for an error in the formatting of financial data that resulted in incorrect information being uploaded to the council’s website.

“The error, which was caused by a misalignment of the amount column with the corresponding suppliers, has been rectified, and the accurate information is now available on the website.

“We take full responsibility for this error and regret any inconvenience or confusion it may have caused.

“We are committed to ensuring that our financial data is accurate and up-to-date, and we are taking steps to prevent similar errors from occurring in the future.”

The council’s Conservative group leader, Paul Dundas, will call for cabinet members to apologise to residents at a meeting next week.