IT cost cash-strapped Scottish Borders Council nearly £4,000 to send a 19-strong delegation to Bristol in October, a Freedom of Information response has revealed.
The jaunt was organised for elected members and officials to inspect a waste treatment facility operated by the company which has signed a deal with the council to provide a similar piece of plant at Easter Langlee in Galashiels by 2019.
The bulk of the party travelled down by coach although two officers made the journey by train and one flew down. The delegation spent one night at an hotel before touring the facility the next morning and returning home later that day.
The Fo1 response reveals that the average cost of dinner, bed and breakfast for the trippers was £126 and that the travel costs for those who went by bus totalled £1,350.
The airborne officer’s fare was £77.50 and it cost £228 for the pair who took the train.
Although the total cost came to £,3,939, the FoI response reassuringly avers: “No expenses have been claimed”.
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