WILTSHIRE: North Wiltshire District councillor Adrian Bishop has admitted members were to blame for allowing £10,000 of taxpayer's money to be spent on the upkeep of four homeless pigs.

At a meeting of the council's scrutiny committee on Thursday last week, he said the blame could not lie with officers alone.

"We as councillors are to blame for this because we didn't keep an eye on it," he said.

The council was obliged to take responsibility for a number of homeless wild animals when the Kington Langley Animal Sanctuary closed in March 1999.

While it managed to re-home many animals, including an alligator, it had no luck with the pigs, who are the offspring of the infamous Tamworth Two, Butch and Sundance.

In August the council launched an appeal for someone to come forward and take them off its hands, when it was also revealed they had been spending more than £10,000 on their upkeep at Ravensden Zoo in Northampton.