Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

North and north-east taxpayers foot the bill for £125,000 of council flights

Post Thumbnail

Taxpayers have paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds to send councillors and officers to far-flung locations such as Florida, Greenland and Slovenia in the past two years.

New figures obtained by the Press and Journal reveal north and north-east councils have spent almost £125,500 for official trips in 2017 and 2018.

Of the four councils that provided the information, Highlands spent the most on flights, with £47,430 across 2017 and 2018.

The authority paid for 129 return flights for staff and elected officials, however about £17,000 of these were funded by external organisations.

Among the trips that were funded by the public purse was a principal accounting technician, who travelled to Fort Lauderdale in America on a Virgin Atlantic flight which cost £738.30.

The authority also sent a sustainability officer to Sisimiut, Greenland, via a British Airways flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, and a connecting Air Greenland flight which cost £3,058.

And a coastal planning officer made the trip to the Ljubliana, the Slovenian capital, in a direct Easyjet flight which cost £514.07.

All trips were economy class.

Shetland Islands Council paid £54,501 for 146 flights across 2017 and 18, the majority of which were to the mainland.

However the council’s convener also made trips to conferences and other civic events in Bergen and Aalborg in Norway, Copenhagen and Gotland in Sweden, and Brussels.

The total cost of these economy flights was £4,198.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


Meanwhile Aberdeenshire Council spent £14,450 on 55 return trips in total across the two years.

Among these were four trips made by the current provost, Bill Howatson, who journeyed to Denmark twice, Norway and Amsterdam to attend conferences, in trips totalling £1,164.

Councillor Richard Thomson, the current SNP-Labour opposition group leader, travelled to Norway, Denmark and Amsterdam to attend three meetings of the North Sea Commission Resources Group, which totalled £1,279.

And Councillors Charles Buchan and Mark Findlater attended the Kimo International Conference and AGM, an event which focuses on marine sustainability, in both 2017 and 2018, which amounted to £1,828.

All flights were economy class.

Moray Council spent £9,083 on trips to locations including Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Sumburgh.

Aberdeen and Western Isles councils claimed it would be too expensive to provide the figures.

All councils have said they were “working hard” to cut now on any trips which are not essential, and are increasingly moving towards video conferencing where possible.

However, the authorities say there are still events which require attendance in person and which necessitate air travel.