Labour MP Alan Meale spends more than £13,000 on gardening

Alan Meale was previously a member of the socialist Campaign group

Alan Meale, a former environment minister who represents Mansfield, also claimed reimbursement of a £2,000 bill from a "horticulturalist" to clear trees and shrubbery at his Nottinghamshire constituency home.

Other reimbursed expenses included more than £7,000 for redecorating the detached property, which he designated as his second home with the parliamentary authorities, and furnishing it with window shutters and new steps leading to his French doors.

Under the additional costs allowance system, Mr Meale made the claims for gardening bills amounting to more than £13,000 between 2004 and 2008.

They included the £2,000 horticulturalist's bill for the "clearance of trees and shrubbery", as well as "repair to footpaths and walls" in the garden. He also claimed £700 for a garden bench. Repairs to fences and gates at the property cost more than £2,000 in total.

Other claims made by the MP included £1,448 to replace and install a new storage building, £69 for garden tools and £188 for topsoil.

The rules used by the parliamentary fees office to decide on MPs' expenses dictated that they were not allowed to claim for garden furniture including patio sets, loungers and barbecues.

Claims for "basic garden maintenance" were permitted, but not ones for plants, shrubs, flowers, hanging baskets or "other decorations".

Mr Meale, who was previously a member of the socialist Campaign group and has worked for Tony Benn and Dennis Skinner, claimed the maximum allowed under the ACA in 2006-07 and 2007-08. His expenses claims show that he received more than £7,300 for decorating and repairing his constituency home.

He also received more than £4,700 of taxpayers' money for a new bathroom and shower tray and attempted to claim more than £3,200 for a new refrigerator and cooker, although he received only £1,200 from the fees office. Mr Meale also billed the taxpayer for the £1,480 cost of new steps "for french doorway" at his home and a £2,800 set of replacement shutters from the New England Shutter Company.

According to its website, the company supplies "interior designers, architects and discerning householders". The shutters were cleared for payment by the fees office after Mr Meale described them as "replacement internal security shutters (wooden)".

An internal fees office note stated: "They had been badly damaged in a burglary last year and had finally rotted away. Has replaced like with like. Are we OK to pay?"

Other claims included a new Sony television, DVD player and video costing £584, plus a satellite television package costing £41 a month.

Mr Meale said that he had hired the horticulturalist because "a large number of trees (25), some of which were in a dangerous state, had to be removed along with a number of overgrown shrubs and bushes".

He added: "The store building was a replacement that was virtually falling down, as it had been in its place a number of decades. It holds grass cutter, fertilisers, garden tools etc."

The new gate replaced an "inadequate one", adding that he had problems with people dumping litter and even an old caravan in the lane outside his home. He would have been happy to pay the bill had he been asked to by the fees office, he said.

He said that he had to replace the footpaths and walls because they were "made of concrete and were dangerous" and he ordered the bark "to reduce weeds and cover areas which had trees and shrubs removed".

He needed the Sky package so that he could watch 24-hour news, he said.

He claimed for the shutters because they were "to replace iron expanding ones which had been badly damaged during a break-in. I was advised that the cost of replacing them was prohibitive.

"Also, that the shutters would offer both privacy and a certain degree of crime prevention if fitted."

The cost of the new steps to his french doors was "approximate to new ones being laid".

Mr Meale said he thought that his claim for a bench had been declined by the fees office. He told The Daily Telegraph he would repay the money.

Of the refurbishment bill, he added: "My constituency home interior was in need of redecoration and repairs which included the bathroom and shower which were very old." The new fridge and cooker "replaced much older ones that either didn't work or were faulty".