With modern communications, many long distance journeys are now increasingly unnecessary.
Local authorities facing significant pressure on their finances should be working to cut their travel costs and avoiding all unnecessary flights. Despite that, new research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance can reveal that councils in the North East have recently spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on flights.
The new report establishes for the first time the cost to taxpayers of flights taken by local authorities in the region from April 2009 to February 2012 and follows earlier grassroots research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance in the Midlands and Hampshire.