Flights bill defended by councillors (From This is Hampshire)

Flights bill defended by councillors

5:00pm Monday 13th February 2012 in News By Simon Moss

Cllr Andrew Finney

SENIOR borough and county councillors have defended spending on flights around Europe after the cost was criticised by a prominent pressure group.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) said local authorities in the county have shelled out £135,000 on flights over the last two financial years.

In Basingstoke and Deane, almost £12,000 has been spent on trips to Gothenburg, Cologne and another destinations as well as a number of internal flights.

John Henvest, Hampshire TPA activist, 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 such as video conferencing, they needn’t spend large sums of taxpayers’ money on plane tickets.

“It is great that two authorities in Hampshire were prudent and didn’t spend a penny of taxpayers’ money on flights. However, others need to control the amount being spent on air travel.”

But borough bosses insist the £12,000 it spent did not come out of the public purse as the costs were reimbursed by the European Union.

Councillor Andrew Finney, Cabinet member for economic strategy and development, said: “The cost of just under £12,000 for flights came from an EU budget through European funding.

“These travel costs were recoverable as expenses from the European projects the council was working on, which brought in funding of £178,320 to the Basingstoke and Deane area.

“This funded a range of projects to Basingstoke and Deane including improving skills for employment, promoting Basingstoke and Deane across Europe as a place to do business and improving career prospects for local people.”

Meanwhile, Hampshire County Council is said to have paid out in excess of £45,000 on trips, with the costs being directly incurred by taxpayers. Council leader, Cllr Ken Thornber, said a large proportion of the flights were within the UK as part of a statutory responsibility to visit and assess new placements for children in care, adding international travel has helped bring in millions of pounds worth of funding to the region.

He said: “All internal and external travel is properly authorised before it takes place to ensure that it is approved in line with county council policy.

“On occasion, when public transport or car travel does not allow, it is more efficient and provides greater value for money for economy flights to be taken, particularly if it allows staff to attend a morning meeting elsewhere in the UK and return the next day, thereby avoiding the need to incur any associated accommodation costs.”

Cllr Thornber added the council has received £3million of financial support from the European Union, as well as around £7m through the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.

Hart District Council was one of only two local authorities in Hampshire which spent nothing on flights.