Leeds City Council hoping to raise £500,000 from Lord Mayor's 'U1' licence plate
The plate is being flogged off as part of efforts to solve a budget crisis at the local authority
More than £500,000 could be raised for the council with the sale of the Lord Mayor’s official car number plate.
Leeds City Council is considering selling off the asset, which it has owned for more than 120 years.
A sale of the civic plate, which bears the symbol ‘U1’, would help the authority plug a financial gap of more than £100m it faces next year.
Debra Coupar, the council’s executive member for resources, said: “The sale of any assets is never something we take lightly and, in an ideal world, would not be something we’d wish to do.
“However, the financial pressures we are facing are simply so acute, we are being forced to look at all manner of options which we have never explored before.”
The plate is said to be the first ever bought in Leeds after the Motor Car Act was passed in 1903.
Rowland Winn, a founding member of the Automobile Association, gifted the number plate to Arthur Currer Briggs, when Briggs was elected Lord Mayor the same year.
Coun Coupar said industry experts had been consulted on a valuation of the plate.
She said: “In the current circumstances, that is an opportunity we must take, and our priority has to be to do whatever we can to balance our budget, meet the needs of residents and not risk being driven to the point of financial distress.”
Council documents show the sale would be classed as a “key decision”, with a potential financial impact of more than £500,000.