More research is needed into the council's executive car scheme, with an emphasis on procuring lower cost and more efficient hybrid vehicles.

On Thursday the council's Senior Staff Committee discussed a notice of motion (NOM) submitted by Cllr Bob Kilmister, that the executive car scheme should be reviewed completely with a remit of reducing costs by 15%.

A report submitted to the senior staff committee recommended that NOM be refused. It said that a saving of more than 15% had already been made due to the "significant turnover of chief officers and prudent management of the lease car scheme".

However committee members felt that the scheme could be reviewed in terms of the vehicles offered and their carbon dioxide emissions.

"I think the scheme needs further work," Cllr Kilmister told the committee. "I'm not against the scheme but I still believe a 15% reduction is achievable and desirable. "

Cllr Kilmister added that he had researched the lease costs of top of the range hybrid vehicles and found them to be significantly cheaper than the maximum allowance granted to chief officers.

"Do our officers need such gas guzzling vehicles?" he asked.

He added that the current scheme, where a head of paid service or director can lease a car to the value of up to £7,000 had no checks in place to prevent another Porsche gate.

"The figures here are above what the people of Pembrokeshire consider to be acceptable," he said. "If you reject this you are going to send out entirely the wrong message when we are making major cut backs to public services."

Mr Haswell replied that he personally vetted all car lease applications and would not allow another officer to lease a Porsche.

Councillors agreed that in the future hybrid vehicles should be considered for new leases as it would contribute towards carbon reduction and lower the council's national insurance contributions.

The committee agreed that more work needed to be done into the cost and availability of hybrid cars and the cost of the infrastructure that would be needed. Further clarification was also to be sought on insurance issues.