Councillor takes taxpayer-funded £600 acting lessons His role, formerly called ceremonial mayor, is to perform 'ceremonial roles' on behalf of directly elected Labour mayor Lutfur Rahman, such as planting trees, opening new shops and appearing a civic functions in mayoral garb. They get enough training in the council chamber, standing up and shouting and making a scene - they don't need to sound like John Gielgud. Speaking this week, Cllr Chaudhury, who represents Bethnal Green South and was the borough's 'Olympic Ambassador', said: "After being elected speaker I was offered public speaking and chairing training by the council in order to help me fulfil my role to the best of my ability." He admitted, however, that he was 'shocked at the cost of the RADA training', but insisted: "This was not something I knew at the time." The council, which is slashing services in a bid to save £100m over four years, confirmed that it paid out £600 for the acting lessons, but defended the payments, saying newly-elected speakers might feel they need public speaking lessons. A spokesman for the council said training is offered to all speakers 'as a matter of course' when they are first elected to the post. Cllr Chaudhury was criticised earlier this year after running up a £9,000 taxi bill between May 2011 and January this year after his official car was scrapped.