106 JACK fm
- give us a bell on 01438 422106
- text us on 80010 starting your message 'jack'
- add JACK on facebook
- tweet tweet @106jack
£16,000 Spent On Twinning Visits
A Lib Dem Councillor's claiming money spent on entertaining French and German guests wasn't well spent...
Robin Parker says 16-thousand pounds of taxpayer's money was used to entertain 17 guests and Stevenage Borough Council Officials during a twinning visit.
He claims, despite the expense, there was only one business meeting over the weekend in May.
Mr Parker told Jack FM: "At a time when the new government is trying to get to grips with Labour's debt of about £160 billion per year, and is asking local councils to make savings to help in that task, I think it was wholly inappropriate for the Labour dominated council to spend so much from Stevenage council taxpayers on civic entertainment.
In the debt circumstances that we find ourselves, as a result of Labour's over borrowing, this year it would have been wrong for us to attend these events and so the 3 strong Liberal Democrat group refused to do so.
The twinning links are a valuable social and educational focus for the town, and we strongly support them.
But most of the links are by local individuals and families, who raise their own funds and volunteer their own time and services for the purpose, including hosting families.
In contrast, it is not necessary for the civic link (that is, councillors and officials) to be so expensive for taxpayers.
Perhaps SBC needs to look again at the possibility of helping the town twinning organisations access European funds to assist with these valuable visits..."
Deputy Leader of Stevenage Borough Council, John Gardner, has responded to the claims saying:
"Stevenage-Autun-Ingelheim Association takes part in a tripartite visit every year when one town hosts the other two towns for a three-day visit.
Delegates spend one entire day of this visit in a business meeting, sharing issues of mutual interest and learning from the way the other countries approach different challenges. They spend the other two days on guided tours to places of interest.
This year, Stevenage hosted the visit and welcomed dignitaries from Autun and Ingelheim.
The Stevenage-Autun-Ingelheim Association is the spearhead of all town-twinning activity between the towns, which includes a very rewarding scheme of exchange visits for schools and colleges in all three countries..."
More from Local News
