View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
April 29, 2007updated 07 Sep 2012 12:56pm

FoI request reveals how council tax payers lost £300k

By Press Gazette

The Kent Messenger used the Freedom of Information Act to reveal how its local council lost nearly £300,000 of taxpayers' money.

Paul Francis, political editor of the paper's parent Kent Messenger Group, obtained documents under the act that reveal how Kent County Council (KCC) ignored the advice of its own advisers when it supported plans for weekly flights from Manston airport in east Kent to Virginia, USA.

Only 800 tickets were sold for the flights out of a possible 10,000 and the weekly charter, run by the Cosmos airline, was scrapped in February this year, just weeks before the service was due to begin.

Francis told Press Gazette that the request was a good example of how FoI can reveal the inner workings of politics.

"A lot of people in view of their council tax bills going up, have often expressed concerns about how their county council spends their money and this is an example of whether it's a good idea to invest in things like this when there is a squeeze on frontline services,"

he said.

"It's hard to imagine some of this stuff coming out before FoI. [This request] shows what decision-makers spending large amounts of money really did, instead of what they said they did."

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The documents reveal how the council pressed ahead with the costly plans despite missing key deadlines that consultants said were "vital" in determining whether the scheme would be successful.

Consultants Freudmann Tipple were hired by KCC to conduct a feasibility study and recommended that tickets went on sale a year before the flights started. Because of a series of delays, tickets only became available seven months before flights began, despite repeated warnings.

KCC told the Kent Messenger that Cosmos had been "entirely happy" with the timescale and defended its decision to push ahead with the flights plan.

Last year another Messenger FoI request submitted by Francis found that KCC had spent around £50,000 on foreign trips for its Conservative cabinet members in 2005.

During a four-day trip to Virginia costing more than £6,000, councillors were invited to join "Virginian Indians at a Pow Wow meeting in order to negotiate their participation in an international festival at Gravesend".

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network