Town hall junkets revealed
Updated on 02 June 2009
Town hall staff and councillors spent just under £3m on overseas trips in just one year, research by More4 News reveals.
In total, just over £1.9 million was spent by British local councils on flights in 2007/8.
The globe-trotting included a £20,000 trip by Coventry City Council staff to a real estate show in Cannes, France; and a £14,000 visit by Edinburgh City Council officers to Tartan Week in New York.
To find out where your council's officials have been jetting off to, click here.
The highest spending town hall was the Scottish island authority Orkney Islands Council; which paid out £318,898 in air fares in 2007/8. It's most expensive trip was a £1,795 visit to Easter Island, in the south east Pacific Ocean.
Other destinations visited by Orkney officials, whose island has a population of 19,900, included the USA, Denmark, Canada, Italy and Iceland.
A spokeswoman for Orkney Islands Council said the figure of £318,898 related to the total cost of all air travel, not just overseas trips.
She said the trip to the USA had been essential for the profile of the island's cruise industry - which is worth 3m Euros a year to the island - while the trip to Easter Island was related to the work of Orkney College's archaeology department.
She added: "Orkney Islands Council reviews all its spending, including that for overseas travel, on an ongoing basis to ensure it is cost effective and to the benefit of Orkney."
In total, £2,017,404 was spent by British local councils on foreign trips in 2007/8; with a further £1,003,650 on extra expenses such as hotel bills, taxis and food. More than 330 councils replied to the More 4 News survey.
Aside from the costs, the research also reveals that local councils visited a total of 73 different countries in 12 months.
From single visits to exotic locations such as Tanzania, Mozambique and Barbados; to 109 trips to Germany. France was the next popular destination for officials, with 104 visits in the year.
How many times were countries visited?
For a list of overall destinations, and how many times they were visited (in brackets), below.
1. ALBANIA
2. ANGOLA
3. AUSTRALIA (9)
4. AUSTRIA (13)
5. AUSTRIA
6. BANGLADESH
7. BARBADOS
8. BELARUS
9. BELGIUM (79)
10. BOSNIA
11. BRAZIL (3)
12. BULGARIA
13. CANADA (16)
14. CHINA (19)
15. CROATIA (3)
16. CYPRUS (6)
17. CZECH (10)
18. DENMARK (35)
19. EIRE (57)
20. ESTONIA (7)
21. ETHIOPIA
22. FINLAND (14)
23. FRANCE (104)
24. GAMBIA (3)
25. GERMANY (109)
26. GHANA (2)
27. GREECE (6)
28. HONG KONG (3)
29. HUNGARY (10)
30. ICELAND (4)
31. INDIA (5)
32. INDONESIA
33. ITALY (45)
34. JAMAICA (4)
35. JAPAN (4)
36. KOREA
37. LATVIA (3)
38. LITHUANIA (4)
39. LUXEMBOURG (2)
40. MALAWI (4)
41. MALAYSIA (3)
42. MALTA (3)
43. MEXICO
44. MONACO
45. MOROCCO
46. MOZAMBIQUE
47. NETHERLANDS (43)
48. NEWZEALAND (3)
49. NIGERIA (2)
50. NORWAY (22)
51. PAKISTAN (3)
52. PALESTINE
53. POLAND (37)
54. PORTUGAL (10)
55. ROMANIA (6)
56. RUSSIA (9)
57. SERBIA (3)
58. SINGAPORE (2)
59. SLOVAKIA (4)
60. SLOVENIA (8)
61. SOUTH AFRICA (13)
62. SOUTH KOREA (2)
63. SPAIN (44)
64. SWEDEN (32)
65. SWITZERLAND (7)
66. TANZANIA
67. THAILAND (2)
68. TURKEY (5)
69. UAE (3)
70. UGANDA
71. UKRAINE (3)
72. USA (64)
73. ZAMBIA
