Midlands councils’ spending on flights revealed 5

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48 councils still jet-setting whilst 29 go for austerity

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) can today reveal the cost of flights by local authorities in the Midlands over the last two years. Our findings include business class and premium air travel and show that 48 councils in the region have continued to spend on flights despite tighter budgets. The 29 councils who did not spend any money on flights should be commended for using taxpayers’ money responsibly.

To read the full report click here

For the complete press release click here

The key findings of this report are:

48 councils across the Midlands spent a combined total of at least £275,000 on flights between April 2009 and March 2011. Unfortunately Birmingham City Council was unable to provide the requested information, so the true figure is almost certainly higher
29 councils did not spend any money at all on flights over the period
Lincolnshire County Council spent more than £42,000 on flights, making them the highest spending council in the region
Redditch Borough Council spent more than £900 to send two employees to Brussels on a premium economy flight, whereas the same trip only cost Telford and Wrekin Council £400
Wolverhampton Council spent more than £7,100 on business class flights to Dubai and Bangalore in 2010-11.
Lincolnshire Council spent more than £27,000 on 12 trips to the USA and Canada, some of which were on BA ‘World Traveller Plus’ and business class. They also spent £4,000 on a business class flight to Tokyo
Nottingham Council spent almost £2,000 on a trip to Shanghai in China
Rutland Council spent more than £10,000 on flights to Accra in Ghana

To read the full report click here

For the complete press release click here

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“It is shocking that some council staff have been jetting around at taxpayers’ expense. These local authorities need to find millions in savings in the coming years and with modern technology like video conferencing they needn’t spend large sums of taxpayers’ money on plane tickets. It is great that 29 authorities in the Midlands were prudent and didn’t spend a penny of taxpayers’ money on flights. However, others could cut back, especially those who have been enjoying the perks of business class at taxpayers’ expense.”

The TaxPayers' Alliance

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http://twitter.com/Samuel_E_Amer Sam Amer

Unbelievable.
Taxpayer

This is a very strange report, which tells us almost nothing. What were the results of the meetings? Only then could we tell whether the money has been well spent. Matthew Sinclair’s comments about ‘jetting around’, which conjure up images of holidays and cocktails, describe a different experience from flying Ryanair to Belfast (and no slur is intended on that fine city). Where is the analysis? What is the use of telling us that Leicester employees flew TO East Midlands? Very sorry stuff indeed.
http://profiles.google.com/sadbutmadlad Sad But Mad Lad

What’s with the zero figures for some of the trips, especially Birmingham’s. They must have been proper trips because places like Brussels is listed a number of times. Was the trip fully paid by the person themselves out of their own money or was it put on the council’s credit card and therefore not budgetted properly?

http://www.taxpayersalliance.com The TaxPayers’ Alliance

Birmingham City Council’s response included total costs of overseas trips, like hotels and visas. Therefore, the information was not comparable to other councils and we didn’t put them in the main table. However, we felt it was important to include their information in a separate table, and to make reference to our correspondence with them. Trips marked with a zero are usually reimbursed by a third party, but in Birmingham’s case it’s not possible to tell as the information we used is from their own website.

Birmingham tax payer

According to a recent report by BBC WM a delegation led by Mike Whitby flew to USA and bought back the good news that Kraft strongly support Cadbury and its location in Birmingham, plus the possiblity of re-instating flights Birmingham to Chicago. Kraft and their subsiduary Cadbury is a private sector company and even if they did have alternative plans, they are hardly going to tell Mr Whitby – another Jolly for BCC. Do they ever produce any real evidence of investment obtained from these trips abroad? Is there really a viable number of business people who want to fly to Birmingham on a regular basis? Dream on.