THE area's three sitting MPs - Sir George Young, Michael An-cram and Sandra Gidley - cost their constituents around £170,000 each for the year ending March 2004.

The financial cost of the three MPs, includes how much they claimed in allowances for the year ending in March.

All MPs representing seats outside central London are entitled to claim for additional allowances to cover the costs of staying overnight away from their main home - for the purpose of performing parliamentary duties up to a maximum of £20,333.

Messrs Young, An-cram and Gidley claimed £16,757, £14,428 and £19,719 respectively.

Incidental expenses paid to meet the cost of accommodation and equipment for surgeries, other office services and certain travel and communications can be claimed up to a maximum of £18,799.

Messrs Young, An-cram and Gidley claimed £18,799, £16,111 and £18,739 respectively.

The biggest item in the MPs expenses is the cost of paid staff.

The maximum amounts available depends on where the MPs constituency is.

On this account Sir George claimed £68,023, Mr Ancram £67,916 and Mrs Gidley £67,891.

Travel expenses ran-ged from £6,486 for Mrs Gidley to £6,909 for Sir George up to £8,874 for Mr Ancram. MPs living furthest from London tend to have the highest travel costs.

They can claim a motor allowance of 56.1p a mile and a 7.2p a mile bicycle allowance - a popular form of transport with Sir George.

MPs can also claim a number of other smaller allowances and a back-bencher is paid a salary of £57,000 a year.

In all our MPs cost us around £170,000 each in total.