SWINDON Council spent £34,668 of taxpayers' cash on water last year.

The council revealed how much it spent on supplying non-mains water earlier this week.

And when the BBC compiled a national league table of what councils spent on non-mains water, Swindon's £34,668 saw it ranked 52nd of 373 authorities.

But now Swindon Council has hit back.

It says it has been reviewing how it supplies non-mains water for two months and claimed the way the BBC ranked councils was unfair.

But Coun Fay Howard (Lab, Parks), the Labour deputy leader, said things needed to change.

"The amount the council spends on water did surprise me," she said.

"Surely it would be more environmentally friendly and cost effective if we used machines connected up to the mains water?

"I know there might be an initial cost but long term it would be beneficial.

"It is something I will bring up at the full cabinet meeting on Monday and hope that I will be supported."

She said that she would ask how far plans to reviewthe situation had got, "in the knowledge that a litre of bottled water emits hundreds of times as much greenhouse gas as a litre of tap water".

A Swindon Council spokesman said that it could not estimate how much it would cost to convert the council's water supplies to mains water.

The review of bottled water provision was part of its thinking greener.

"The council is actively looking at installing mains-fed water coolers in its buildings where it is possible, although it isn't always a practical or cost-effective option in every area," said the spokesman.

"The BBC league table of council expenditure on water coolers and bottled water is, by the BBC's own admission, flawed, because local authorities record their spending differently.

"The survey also takes no account of the size of each authority, the number of individual offices and buildings that it has, the number of staff it employs, or the age of its buildings.

"While we are exploring how we can reduce the number of coolers which are not mains-fed, it is important to make water easily available to people working at and visiting the council, and for that reason it is unlikely that we will be able to phase out stand-alone coolers completely."