Council spends £100,000 on 'how to wash your hands' video The cash-strapped local authority is seeking to make 79m pounds worth of savings on its 1bn pounds a year budget over the next three years. The council's Lib Dem leader James Walsh claimed only 200 people out of the county's 750,000 population had bothered tuning in. He said: "That doesn't seem like good value to me. It's a kick in the teeth for all those elderly and younger adults who have had their care packages reduced or stopped, in the name of saving cash for the county. Can the Tory leadership really believe that a YouTube film unit is a higher priority than providing care packages for the frail elderly or residents with a learning disability? This luxury enterprise seems yet another step too far, and demonstrating how far the Tory county council is divorced from reality. In the film titled 'How To Use a Mobile Phone' the presenter explains: "I have my phone firmly in my right hand and then select the digit of choice, in my case the left index finger. Place your finger on the button - don't come at it from a distance. Another video, called How To Wash Your Hands Effectively, tells viewers to "wet your hands before you apply the soap" and "work up a lather and dry with a clean hand towel." One sarcastic YouTube commenter wrote: "Thank you for this extremely useful information! This has given my life a meaning. Another said: "No wonder our council taxes are so high. Sack them all! Gordon McAra, an independent member of Chichester District Council, added: "Councillors should concentrate on the basic services that people expect and not get involved in new fangled toys just for the novelty value. They rarely bring benefit to the council tax payer and some people might regard this as an ego trip. Five years ago the council spent 40,000 pounds on a mid-range camera and editing equipment. The film unit's annual running costs are 26,000 pounds, which includes a part-time person who films, edits and maintains the equipment. The movies are available to watch on the council's YouTube channel as well as its own website. County council leader Louise Goldsmith defended the TV unit and said claims that only a few people watched its films were 'scurrilous.' She said: "The Conservative run county council realises how important it is to keep residents informed particularly at a time when it is faced with the challenge of finding 79m pounds. The YouTube film clips are a good way of keeping our residents informed in all sorts of important areas, such as Age with Confidence. Across at least three video hosting sites (including our own), the total at this moment is more than 100,000 viewings. Add to this our distribution to many specialist trade and academic websites, along with those who distribute virally, and who host our videos. The county council website video pages, incidentally, are receiving nearly 3,000 visits every month. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and the council has always been firmly committed to finding new ways of reaching out to, and communicating with, the residents we serve. A council spokesman said each movie costs 300 pounds and that the film about hand washing was made during the height of the bird flu crisis. He added the council is one of 61 local authorities posting videos on YouTube. The movies were dismissed by the Taxpayers' Alliance, which said that no-one wanted to watch the films. A spokesman said: "Some councils either have more money and time than they know what to do with, or have a misguided understanding of what their job involves. Publicity and communications has long been an area where some councils simply don't seem to understand what is a good idea and what isn't. More worryingly, some of them don't seem either able or willing to learn from their mistakes and stop pursuing poor ideas when they have clearly failed.