Transport body's pound(s)101,0

Posté le 28/04/2010 à 10:25 - Laisser un commentaire

A PUBLICLY-funded transport authority has been drawn into an expenses row after it emerged the Government body had spent up to pound(s)101,000 on foreign trips for senior officials over three years.

Figures, obtained by freedom of information laws, show a handful of senior executives at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport travelled to China, India, America and Singapore and stayed in some of the world's most luxurious hotels.

In 2008 Ron Culley, SPT's pound(s)129,000-a-year chief executive, flew to New York at a cost of pound(s)2450 and stayed at the Algonquin Hotel for six nights for pound(s)1650, to investigate anti- terrorist measures. Concrete bollards were later put outside Glasgow Subway stations to block cars.

Mr Culley had a night at the Clarion Hotel in London, costing pound(s)325 to attend a public service conference, and spent pound(s)6500 dining in some of Glasgow's best restaurants, including Rogano and Two Fat Ladies.

The information, taken over a three-year period, also revealed that three company executives visited Manchester in May 2008 to meet with Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. Their stay coincided with the Uefa Cup final between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.

SPT's director of communications Bob Wylie stayed two nights at the Macdonald Portal Hotel in Chester, 35 miles from the GMPTE's office in Manchester, which SPT says was due to limited room availability because of the football match. Included in Mr Wylie's pound(s)1240 claim was a pound(s)120 taxi journey from Manchester to the hotel. Other expenses incurred by senior staff were pound(s)3000 on flowers and pound(s)1700 on taxis, including pound(s)90 for a trip from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

Glasgow MSP Sandra White said: "I think it's a bit rich in these hard financial times that the SPT executives can justify flying all over the world at the public's expense. Subway users are replica breitling watches looking for a better service, one that means trains will run more often, later at night and be more reliable, and there is absolutely no need for trips everywhere paid by hard-to-come-by cash to do this."

However, Alistair Watson, chairman of SPT, defended the overseas travel and said the quango had spent "thousands to save millions" on a planned overhaul of the city's crumbling Subway network. He described the travel as fact-finding missions, undertaken to examine the world's best subway systems and source equipment for the modernisation of Glasgow's Underground.

Next month SPT will put forward detailed plans for a pound(s)350- pound(s)400 million modernisation of the subway, which will include new carriages and the introduction of smart-card technology, similar to the Oyster card in London, which can be used on all public transport.

He said SPT policy was to use medium-ranking hotels for all visits outside of Glasgow and said higher end accommodation would only be used if there were discounted deals or if there was limited availability.