Councils spend £4.6m on travel over one year

The total amount local authorities in the Black Country and Staffordshire paid for flights, hotels, rail and mileage was £3,991,987 in 2009 but had risen by more than £600,000 in 2012.

It comes as a group of West Midlands council leaders from both Labour and the Tories appealed to the Government to not cut their funding further after having to take millions of pounds out of services since 2010.

Councillors stressed they always tried to get the best possible value for travel and said increases in rail fares and fuel costs beyond their control had added to the bill.

In Wolverhampton, the city council spent £54,539 on hotels, £268,892 on trains and £2,257 on air fares as well as £11,943 on buses in 2011-12. The train fare bill for 2012-13 in

Wolverhampton was £144,188 but more recent figures for other councils were not available today.

Council leader Roger Lawrence said that when he travelled on council business, he bought the cheapest possible ticket.

Walsall Council spent £2,029,788 on overall travel and hotels in 2009 compared with £2,313,387 in 2011-12. Mike Bird, Walsall Council's leader, said: "We keep a very close eye on it but fares increase year on year, and that's outside our control."

In Dudley, costs for car mileage came down between 2010 and 2011 to £1.67m but were still higher than in 2009 when the council spent £1.36m. It is also spending less than half what it used to spend on rail travel and hotel accommodation.

Cannock Chase Council also saw a rise in travel costs from £5,854 in 2009 to £7,726 in 2011-12.

One of the biggest spenders was Birmingham City Council which spent £319,000 over five years visiting a total of 43 countries. Sandwell Council refused to answer a request for details of spending on travel and accommodation on cost grounds.

Wyre Forest saw its costs fall from £4,763 in 2009 to £3,828 in 2011-12.

The costs at Stafford Council dropped from £213,249 to £196,034 and at Lichfield from £110,145 to £89,912. South Staffordshire Council spent £720 on travel and hotel accommodation in 2011-12.