Councillor caught watching football on his iPad during important Milton Keynes budget meeting

Opposition councillors say Andy Dransfield was glued to the Champions League match instead of concentrating on the annual budget setting process last week.

He came under attack after his council-issued iPad let out a loud burst of football commentary mid-meeting.

Labour’s council leader Pete Marland said: “It just shows a massive disrespect for the public that we are debating £40m worth of cuts, but Mr Dransfield can’t be bothered to pay attention and instead is watching the football.”

He added: “I’m the first to admit that council meetings sometimes are not the most riveting of events, but he is a councillor.”

Mr Dransfield said he was “fiddling” with his iPad and refuses to confirm or deny that he was watching football.

He said: “At least 50 per cent of the councillors are on their phones or iPads during these meetings. You know they are by the amount of Twitter and Facebook posts flying around.”

“If I was watching the Champions League then it would be a lot more interesting that watching the stitch up between Labour and Lib Dems that exists over the council budget.”

Tories, who have the same number of councillors in MK as Labour, are left out in the cold during budget setting due to a Labour/Lib Dem pact to vote together on monetary matters.

The football result blared out from Mr Dransfield’s iPad so loudly that people in the public gallery heard it clearly.

“It was appalling, particularly as such sensitive issues were being discussed,” said one resident.

Veteran Councillor Dransfiled is well-known for his outspokeness, which has incurred him penalties in the past.

Last year he was under investigation for political incorrectness after telling a police officer she looked “young enough to be at school.”

The previous year he was suspended from his role as a Bucks fire authority member because he shook a black firefighter by the hand and told him: “you’re the first one I’ve seen.”