Posh Hotels and £62 thousand

7.36.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 30th Jun 2009

Leicester taxpayers forked out £5,505 for the trip and £62 thousand for office renovations at New Walk.

Local Press have revealed that senior Council officers with Labour councillors went on a two-day over night visit to Rutland last year to discuss how to plan for the year ahead, this is despite £62 thousand of taxpayers money spent on a open plan renovation of their offices!

Expense claims made by the chief executive show that the trip to Barnsdale Hall Hotel cost Leicester's taxpayer £5,505. The chief executive was reported in local press as saying that they were doing the same again this year at the same three star hotel.

At the June council meeting Lib Dems asked how much was the cost of renovation of offices to accommodate senior staff and the chief executive and were informed by the Labour administration that the cost was £62 thousand which included creating an open plan office in order for staff to "collate together in a collaborate environment".

Cllr. Peter Coley, leader of the Lib Dem group said, "Particularly at a time when money is very tight this sort of wastefulness by the ruling Labour administration, to spend over £5,000 of taxpayers money on a jolly is nothing short of obscene. When we ran the council 2003-2007 we had similar sessions with senior officers but they were held during office hours, in Leicester at Council owned buildings so the cost was minimal".