Civic chiefs spend £135,000 on air fares (From Daily Echo)
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Anger over taxpayers' money being used for council staff's flights
11:30am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News
Salt Lake City, visited by Hampshire County Council staff at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £3,000.
GLOBETROTTING civic chiefs have spent more than £135,000 of taxpayers’ money on air travel in the past two years.
Miami, Chicago and Singapore are among destinations on a list of flights paid for by councils.
Staff jetted off around the world for dozens of conferences, training courses, social care visits and factfinding missions between April 2009 and November 2011, according to data compiled by anti-council tax campaigners.
About £55,600 has been spent on air travel at Southampton City Council, including one flight to a major cruise industry convention in Miami, which cost the taxpayer £547.
Their counterparts at Hampshire County Council spent £45,000 on flights, including £1,395 to send staff to an Assembly of European Regions Bureau meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden.
More than £3,000 was spent on visiting Salt Lake City in the USA to meet with providers of “pioneering”
crime-mapping technology.
Both councils say much of their air travel is for social workers to carry out critical child protection activity and to ensure millions of pounds in trade and grants is ploughed in to the area.
But John Henvest, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which collected the information, said: “It is s h o c k i n g that some council staff have been jetting around at taxpayers’ expense. With modern technology like video conferencing they needn’t spend large sums of taxpayers’ money on plane tickets.”
More than £5,500 was spent on flights for twinning visits, including £2,168 by Fareham Borough Council v i s i t i n g Vannes in France and Pulheim in Germany.
Test Valley Borough Council spent £431 on sending an employee to Chicago to attend a conference for municipal clerks.
And Eastleigh Borough Council spent over £500 on flights to send staff on training courses in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Poland.
Spokesmen from the councils involved said they always worked hard to reduce travel costs.
County council leader Ken Thornber said the Salt Lake City trip was for “important technical development”
aimed at building safer communities and could only be done on site in the US.
Southampton City Council said its Miami trip was heavily subsidised and was crucial in encouraging investment in the city’s cruise industry.
A spokesman said: “The council makes sure every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent carefully.”
Comments(17)
Lone Ranger.
says...
11:48am Wed 8 Feb 12
>
You can feel the positive vibes that are rising in the City of Southampton! Come on you citizens of the City of Southampton, embrace good news!
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ooopppsss .... Sorry i tought i would jump in before George4th got there.... Looks like i got it wrong !!!!
Big Mac
says...
11:57am Wed 8 Feb 12
Guess they paid out of their own pockets for all that. Well done all!
a and e
says...
12:10pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Lone Ranger. wrote:Thats all George The fourths propoganda fees for the council ,or is he George The Third ,i,m not sure.
Great News! Fantastic !!
>
You can feel the positive vibes that are rising in the City of Southampton! Come on you citizens of the City of Southampton, embrace good news!
.
ooopppsss .... Sorry i tought i would jump in before George4th got there.... Looks like i got it wrong !!!!
Maine Lobster
says...
12:14pm Wed 8 Feb 12
a and e wrote:Should be Richard the Third!
Lone Ranger. wrote: Great News! Fantastic !! > You can feel the positive vibes that are rising in the City of Southampton! Come on you citizens of the City of Southampton, embrace good news! . ooopppsss .... Sorry i tought i would jump in before George4th got there.... Looks like i got it wrong !!!!Thats all George The fourths propoganda fees for the council ,or is he George The Third ,i,m not sure.
A Southampton resident
says...
12:35pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Remember, good folk of Southampton, these people will be canvassing for your votes during the local elections in a few weeks time. Perhaps some searching questions on their cavalier attitude to helping themselves to our money might be in order when they come knocking on your door.
timjim
says...
12:50pm Wed 8 Feb 12
I don't remember visiting a conference for municipal clerks, but it would be interesting if said employee could come out and inform the electorate what was learnt, and how it has benefited them, and therefore the tax-payer.
eurogordi
says...
1:35pm Wed 8 Feb 12
George4th
says...
2:55pm Wed 8 Feb 12
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Makes a change from the last council incumbents who were not as diligent with the expenses!
George4th
says...
2:55pm Wed 8 Feb 12
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Makes a change from the last council incumbents who were not as diligent with the expenses!
Linesman
says...
3:07pm Wed 8 Feb 12
As they have made the costs public, they should now show what they have gained from each trip, and if there was no gain, an assurance that the mistake would not be repeated.
Over the Edge
says...
3:57pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Lone Ranger. wrote:I have discovered the identity of the spin doctor Southampton City Council pay £90,000 a year for, he goes by the alias, George 4th.
Great News! Fantastic !!
>
You can feel the positive vibes that are rising in the City of Southampton! Come on you citizens of the City of Southampton, embrace good news!
.
ooopppsss .... Sorry i tought i would jump in before George4th got there.... Looks like i got it wrong !!!!
Whatever negative reports or comments are written he always defends the Tory administration, he and his Labrador are working overtime, I say his Labrador, because he must be blind if he can't see this administration are running this city into the ground.
Unless Southampton City Council are going to offer cruise's to it's residents, if not why the hell are they attending a cruise convention in Miami?
Come on George 4th, answer this question before you commend these people for keeping prices down.
George4th
says...
4:28pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Just maybe because the City of Southampton is the Cruise Capital of the UK!
>
With regard to being blind. Firstly, I find it distasteful of you to make reference to it.
Secondly, you blatantly choose to ignore 25 years, yes 25 years, of previous councils who were totally inept, suffered from inertia, put no investment into our City, left a run down wreck for us to look at!
It's not about the political party I support, it's about who I believe will do a better job than those before. When compared to the previous 25 years, this council is a breath of fresh air and is taking us forward into the 21st century!
>
If Labour get in again, what business we have left will run away................
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hythe knights
says...
5:52pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Shergold
says...
8:24pm Wed 8 Feb 12
gy etc,.. that means a REAL benefit.
Council after council do not make that much difference. I saw how the ocean village building was run into the ground, as that used public funds then let it get rented out privately etc,.. there were some lovely little businesses there but they said the same thing' the rent got too high'. So now we will have some monster building of flats with not enough parking space.? you call that progress? should be more social housing and reasonable parking charges and then zero on a sunday!!! it was it should be.
Over the Edge
says...
8:55pm Wed 8 Feb 12
George4th wrote:Apologies for the blind comment I did not intend to offend.
"Unless Southampton City Council are going to offer cruise's to it's residents, if not why the hell are they attending a cruise convention in Miami?"
Just maybe because the City of Southampton is the Cruise Capital of the UK!
>
With regard to being blind. Firstly, I find it distasteful of you to make reference to it.
Secondly, you blatantly choose to ignore 25 years, yes 25 years, of previous councils who were totally inept, suffered from inertia, put no investment into our City, left a run down wreck for us to look at!
It's not about the political party I support, it's about who I believe will do a better job than those before. When compared to the previous 25 years, this council is a breath of fresh air and is taking us forward into the 21st century!
>
If Labour get in again, what business we have left will run away................
.
I still do not see how attending a convention on cruises has anything to do with a local authority.
ABP yes, Carnival yes and other relevant companies however a local authority officer or councillor, no chance, the port will be there forever, it will trade forever, going to a convention will not change that.
As for question 25 of poor city management, why would I want that?
I also told you I don't support Labour, I told previously I would like delivery not planning.
Where is your evidence of what pensioners spent their money on when they worked?
andysaints007
says...
10:20pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Goldenwight says...
11:47am Wed 8 Feb 12