Norfolk County Council is to review its spending on translation and interpretation services and only produce the bulk of its communications in English.
The decision came after a motion put forward by the nine-strong Great Yarmouth First group - a branch of Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain party - at Tuesday's meeting of the county council.
The motion was agreed by 45 votes, with 31 against. It was passed without any debate in the council chamber, because the meeting had exceeded its three-and-a-half-hour time limit.
Put forward by Great Yarmouth First leader Jon Wedon, the motion saw the Reform-led council agree to adopt a policy that all Norfolk County Council communications, publications, consultations, correspondence, advertising, and public information materials "shall ordinarily be produced in English only, except where the law requires otherwise".
It also committed the council's newly-appointed chief executive Dennis Bacon, who was attending his first full council meeting, to undertake a review of all current expenditure on translation, interpretation, and foreign language publication services to identify the total annual costs and savings which could be made.
Restore Britain said a Freedom of Information Act request had shown Norfolk County Council spent about £1.6m on foreign language translation and interpretation services over the past four years, with Arabic the most requested language in every year recorded.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Wedon said: "This is Great Britain and if you come to the UK, you should speak English.
"We shouldn't be using taxpayers' money on this at the council, when we are told that the council is skint."
Mr Wedon said he hoped the review would establish the full costs associated with translation services.
He said he wanted the details, along with the savings which would be achieved by stopping publication of translated documents the council is not legally obliged to provide, to be shared with councillors.
He stressed that the motion was clear that British Sign Language services, which are also provided by the council, would be retained and improved.
Mr Lowe said Restore Britain councillors would be looking to do the same in other parts of the country.
However, Kay Mason Billig, leader of the Conservative group and former county council leader, warned the move could have unintended consequences.
She said: "It is perfectly reasonable to ask how much the council spends on translation and interpretation and whether taxpayers are receiving value for money.
"Producing routine council publications in multiple languages is one thing, but providing an interpreter to a social worker dealing with a vulnerable child, an elderly adult, a safeguarding case or a statutory assessment is quite another.
"Let's not inadvertently prevent our professionals from obtaining an interpreter when they genuinely need one to protect a vulnerable resident or discharge the council's responsibilities safely."
According to the county council's website, it provides interpreting and translation services through INTRAN - a non-profit making public sector multi-agency partnership.
The authority says it can provide free interpreters to people who call the council, with qualified interpreters able to speak 75 different languages, including Lithuanian, Polish, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian and Romanian.
The council's website states it will also "consider providing versions of our documents and leaflets in other languages" when requested.
It states the council might provide translated extracts of documents, or may use interpreters to speak to people "if that is more appropriate".
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