I don't have an awful lot of time tonight or any night recently but just so you know, maybe as a taxpayer, or a connoisseur of pointless spending, Kent council have released information concerning travel expenses for Council members.
If your a close follower of these pages, you will remember that I have highlighted, the many hundreds of thousands of pounds, flushed down the drain from the boys and girls in Maidstone(KCC) on what I call their American Adventure.
Since I haven't got the time, please click here for the KM story. One thing I will say is that the story whilst mentioning the thousand spent on "essential" travel for councillors it forgets many thousand wasted other promotional activities in America.
On one trip Alex King, managed to incur costs of £6756, ( Virginia), now to put this in perspective a week for me & Mrs Me in New York cost, approx £2,200 (divide by 2) all in for hotel, taxi from airport, several Broadway shows, museums, sights meals car parking at airport. Alright maybe a business trip involves a bit more expenditure, taxis etc.
Finally here are a couple of quotes from Alex King "When you consider the costs of our American activities, they are a tiny proportion of the county council's overall budget but it has the potential to develop trade and maintain international links. and this cracker "We live in a county where the income per head is below the average for the South East and if we do not help raise the wealth of the county, we will have a problem." Maybe if Kent Council refrained from spending "large" on travel, we'd all be a little richer. The final conclusion has to be if this whole campaign in Virginia had resulted in any investment what so ever, I think Alex King might just have mentioned it. So far we've not seen any evidence of any inward investment, not so much as new McDonald's, Starbucks, KFC (which is just as well since I have just started a new diet).
If anyone in Kent council can prove any real benefit from all this promotional activity in America, which outweighs the cost, I'll make my next posting about Kent Council positive even if I have to invent something. Why Kent even needs a member for International affairs when it takes me 40 minutes to drive across Thanet is beyond me and I suspect you.
If your a close follower of these pages, you will remember that I have highlighted, the many hundreds of thousands of pounds, flushed down the drain from the boys and girls in Maidstone(KCC) on what I call their American Adventure.
Since I haven't got the time, please click here for the KM story. One thing I will say is that the story whilst mentioning the thousand spent on "essential" travel for councillors it forgets many thousand wasted other promotional activities in America.
On one trip Alex King, managed to incur costs of £6756, ( Virginia), now to put this in perspective a week for me & Mrs Me in New York cost, approx £2,200 (divide by 2) all in for hotel, taxi from airport, several Broadway shows, museums, sights meals car parking at airport. Alright maybe a business trip involves a bit more expenditure, taxis etc.
Finally here are a couple of quotes from Alex King "When you consider the costs of our American activities, they are a tiny proportion of the county council's overall budget but it has the potential to develop trade and maintain international links. and this cracker "We live in a county where the income per head is below the average for the South East and if we do not help raise the wealth of the county, we will have a problem." Maybe if Kent Council refrained from spending "large" on travel, we'd all be a little richer. The final conclusion has to be if this whole campaign in Virginia had resulted in any investment what so ever, I think Alex King might just have mentioned it. So far we've not seen any evidence of any inward investment, not so much as new McDonald's, Starbucks, KFC (which is just as well since I have just started a new diet).
If anyone in Kent council can prove any real benefit from all this promotional activity in America, which outweighs the cost, I'll make my next posting about Kent Council positive even if I have to invent something. Why Kent even needs a member for International affairs when it takes me 40 minutes to drive across Thanet is beyond me and I suspect you.
Mr King is undoubtedly right when he says that the amount spent on travel by KCC is a minute proportion of their overall spend.
ReplyDeleteBut, equally, the amount spent on expenses by MEPs - in some cases allegedly "improperly" - is a small percentage of EU spend, yet it has attracted a huge amount of attention and criticism from politicians of all parties and from many commentators.
A small budget spent unwisely and without proper justificiation and result will always be a matter of concern - legitimately. Mr King is naive, at least, if he thinks otherwise.
Tony I have never had much to do with KCC until I recently annoyed them by taking pictures of Ramsgate library, frankly I am coming to the opinion that they have lost their remit. Parkinson’s law seems to have flourished there in gargantuan proportions and where I would be happy to pay for a town council and the two houses of parliament the EC, KCC and TDC seem to be in need an assessment of their worth.
ReplyDeleteAs i see it Alex King is effectively representing Kent in role similar to a salesman so after all, what we now need to see is what effect has this had to Kents bottom line
ReplyDeletelets hope these are more than zeros
Lets just have one example of real success
Its quite simple: Using Tony's trip costs, KCC must have treated 5 other residents to a freeby trip!
ReplyDeleteWhat worries me is that I can just about get round the KCC cabinet members each claiming about £45,000 a year in allowances and expenses but do they claim loss of earnings on top of this?
In answer to that last question, anon, no. There is no allowance for loss of earnings within the KCC pay structure.
ReplyDeleteThe scales for Cabinet Members are (publicly available)
1 County Councillors allowance (all 84 members) £12,000
2 Special Responsibility allowance for Cabinet Members £24,500
3 Travel expenses 40p per mile on KCC business for first 10,000 miles, thereafter 25p per mile
4 Childcare whilst on KCC business if required.
Many will be holding theirown business in abeyance whilst they serve.