Over £6000 spent sending Glasgow City Councillors to events

A document which is being presented to members of the operations and scrutiny committee later this week details the total cost to send elected members to conferences reached £6239.68 between March 20 and September 28 this year.

The total number of carbon emissions created on these trips is 6.85 tonnes of CO2 with the largest emissions being created by council leader Susan Aitken who went to Japan for the World Cities Summit in June which cost the council £185.

In the committee paper, the cost shown in the list includes the conference fee, if any, together with estimated accommodation and travel costs at economy class.

It does not confirm if council officers attended these events as well.

In the last seven months, the council has paid for councillors to attend conference events not only on home soil in London, Scarborough, London and Belfast but also in Japan, Montpelier, Belgium, Paris, Romania and Torino (Turin).

Costs have ranged from anywhere between £10 and £14.90 to £352 and £488 with the most expensive trips costing £889.98 for a conference in Paris called National Organisations Working with the Homeless, and the Eurocities Culture Forum in Belfast which cost £733 to send councillor Alan Casey.

Speaking to the LDR service ahead of the meeting,a council spokesperson said:“Councillors carry out a very important job raising the profile of the city at home and abroad. This can involve domestic and international travel and associated expenditure.

“Conference attendance on behalf of the council has a clear work purpose, with spend subject to prior approval and every effort made to minimise cost.”