A FIRM is being paid up to £135,000 by City of York Council to remove unwanted furniture from its former offices.

The fee is being paid to Essex-based Amaryllis – with the council getting a profit share from items that are resold.

The business removed desks, tables, chairs, air-conditioning machines, tube TVs, water coolers, safes and bins earlier this year when clearing council offices, such as those in St Leonard’s Place, before the authority’s move to its new West Offices HQ.

Independent councillor Mark Warters, who discovered the bill through a Freedom of Information request, said he could not understand why taxpayers had to pay anything, or why an Essex-based firm had been employed.

He said: “Surely this should be cost-neutral? And a local business like the Banana Warehouse would probably have taken the furniture away for nothing.”

Dave Dee, owner of the second-hand furniture store Banana Warehouse, said he would have taken 90 per cent of the furniture for nothing – and probably paid for it – but he was never approached, even though he had left a card last year asking to be called. He said he had previously removed discarded furniture from other public buildings in York.

A council spokeswoman said Amaryllis had been used because it had a programme to reuse, refurbish or recycle all furniture taken.

She said: “Items which are in need of refurbishment are put into the Reform process, which sends furniture to be refurbished in prisons as part of rehabilitation.

“Amaryllis will ensure that 98 per cent of furniture collected is recycled, with a maximum of two per cent going to landfill.

“The move was a large project, dealing with 15 offices, and a company with sufficient resource was needed to deal with this in the necessary short timescales.”

She said Amaryllis was tasked with providing a maximum service with a potentially tricky and changing programme. “Access to the buildings was restricted and required specialist equipment to remove certain items, such as safes.”

The council also wanted a company that could adequately dispose of a large volume of confidential information.

She said while Amaryllis had a headquarters in Essex, it operated nationally and had a Yorkshire base.