Join a local council, see the world... and let the taxpayers pick up the bill
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Independent Minds
If you want to see the world, get a job with Orkney Islands council. That seems to be the message from a comprehensive survey of how much council taxpayers' money local authorities spend on foreign travel.
When the figures for air fares, hotels and other costs of all the councils surveyed are added together, they come to more than £3m a year.
Many of the councils, particularly the smaller ones, spent nothing at all, while some of the bigger ones spent thousands sending councillors or staff abroad for a variety of reasons.
Orkney was an exception to the general rule. This is one of the smallest councils in the country, covering a population not much greater than 20,000, yet in one year it ran up bills for air travel of £318,898.88 – or almost £16 per head of population.
The single most expensive council-funded trip involved sending the Orkney College archaeologist to take part in a geophysics research project on Easter Island, in the middle of the Pacific, at a cost of £1,794.65.
Other big spenders turned up in the survey by More4 News include Glasgow City Council, which spent just under £241,000 on air fares and over £155,000 on accommodation abroad, including £4,239.06 on sending a council employee to accompany the Lord Provost on a trip to the USA to celebrate Tartan Week in Chicago and Toronto.
Edinburgh City Council also spent over £14,000 sending four officials from its department of corporate affairs to New York for Tartan Week.
Sunderland council, on Wearside, spent nearly £98,000 on air travel and accommodation abroad, including over £19,000 on a trip by the then council leader, Bob Symmonds, and three senior staff to the cities of Harbin and Nanjing, in China. The visit paved the way for a friendship agreement with Harbin, and a similar agreement with Nanjing's ministry of science and technology.
"Harbin is a city which has so much to offer Sunderland and we believe we can enjoy a good commercial relationship which will help provide mutual prosperity," Sunderland's chief executive Dave Smith said.
"It's important when you are building and fostering a relationship with a city so far away that you can make the time and find the resources."
Larne Borough Council, in Co Antrim, spent nearly £7,980 sending three councillors and two staff to a "sister cities" conference in Kansas. The council also spent £3,990 sending a delegation to Florida, and £2,655 on a pilgrimage to Somme. Larne was the port from which thousands of Irish emigrants set sail for the US, and is twinned with two towns in South Carolina.
Nottinghamshire County Council spent less than £15,000 on air fares, but more than £45,000 on hotel stays abroad. The main expense was a trip to Brussels to lobby MEPs and EU officials to try to get European funding for anti-crime initiative. The delegation stayed in the £223 a night Jolly Hotel du Grand in Brussels.
The report can be seen on More4 News tonight at 8pm.
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Comments
I would have thought, given the location of Orkney, that it is hardly surprising that they incur higher air far and hotel costs than other councils. I am certainly no advocate of junkets and jollies, but I'm sure that there are many legitimate reasons for members of one particular council to attend meetings etc. in other areas. What are they supposed to do? Row?
This is Daily Mail style nonsense. Offering up raw figures instead of any kind of context. Orkney for instance, where air travel is essential if you want to do any business unless you take ferries and slow trains!
Local authorities do fund international travel, and for the most part it will be linked to trade or tourism development. Baldly announcing that authority X spent so much on hotels and planes is distorting the picture. Glasgow and Manchester are two examples where their lobbying has brought in huge sporting and cultural events with a resulting payoff to the local economy.
Their money sould be spent only on welfare payments, which shows such a great return on investment.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
I trust that the people who are making all the right noises about these greedy and low principled politicians have nothing to cover up themselves regarding inflated expense claims? Are we all whiter than white when it comes to inflated insurance claims? who out their has not added a few pounds to a claim? What about ordinary working class people who have possibly made a few inflated insurance claims in the past are they any better than these greedy politicians? Two wrongs do not make a right. Let us all take stock of the situation and think about how best to get the country up and running again. This witch hunt, and yes I believe that is what it is turning out to be, has brought to light just how corrupt our present system is, and some of the people who apply the rules are. Lets end it now, lets all stop attempting to get one over on each other and attempt to work together, not just for our benefit but for the benefit of the entire country, and who know's we might possibly get ourselves out of this mess and restore some pride in the country, and get the country working again. I strongly urge all of our politicians to take some private time and examine their conscience, and ask themselves a few simple questions. One question might possibly be " Do I like who I have become" If the answer is no, then do something about it, the solution is in your hand's. I strongly urge these greedy and misguided people to do something positive, whilst they are still able to, because come the election the decision will be taken out of their hands. And for those of you who are about to fill in a claims, expense form or any type of form, is the information that you are submitting the truth? or perhaps the truth has become a stranger to us all? Sleep well.
Alphonsus123.
How did you find out I am applying because of that. You are clever man. Have one on me while you are at the counter of the pub. On the other hand, is this the travel agents desk? Let me know hush, hush, where you are going so when I get the job, I pass some coins to you. You have to elect me first then only I can siphon money. I have o be in the seat of the thieves to take the cash of the poor and stupid taxpayers? who save their life and sweat for me. Poor idiots know the rick of politics not. I go to war they think I am going to good some good for the UK. No sir. I stay in 7 star hotels visit the sick, tell them sick jokes and say, ?Your family is fine. Do not worry they are in the safe hands. They then come to UK find out the family tell them, ?You son needs some cash and a TV? . You know the rest.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla