'Sugar daddy' and lesbian dating websites popular with council staff (From Wimbledon Guardian)

'Sugar daddy' and lesbian dating websites popular with council staff

1:23pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News By Omar Oakes

Specialist dating websites, for women seeking women and women seeking rich boyfriends, are among the most popular internet pages accessed by council staff at their work computers.

A Freedom of Information request, by Londonlovesbusiness.com, has revealed the 500 most-visited internet pages by Merton Council employees since November 2012 include dating websites, fashion retailers and toy shops.

The website sugardaddie.com – which promises to “deliver a higher grade of person” for women seeking wealthier men – was the 139th most visited, while lesbian dating website pinksofa.com featured at 207.

The global retailing giant Amazon’s UK website came 5th, while Marisota – a specialist clothing seller for plus-sized women, was 307th.

The top website accessed by staff was Facebook and yourlocalguardian.co.uk, the Wimbledon Guardian's sister website, was the 25th most popular.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance lobbying group, said: “Many people are spending far too much time surfing websites that have nothing to do with their jobs.

“It is vital that taxpayers are able to scrutinise how time they are paying for is spent as staff time at the council accounts for a huge chunk of local residents’ money.”

A Merton Council spokeswoman said: “Staff can access the internet for personal use during their lunch hour, and we trust them not to abuse this policy.

“We also have a filtering system in place to stop access to inappropriate sites. Occasionally new websites find ways around these classification filters.

“As soon we’re aware of any sites, we block access to them immediately.”