Birmingham Council paid £980 for luxury Eurostar tickets for councillor's Brussels visit

Return tickets for Councillor Fred Grindrod and an officer cost £245 per person.

The three-day trip to the Belgian capital in June 2022 was the most expensive overseas visit of the first financial quarter of this year and was part of Birmingham’s post-Brexit activities, documents say. The trip cost £1,980.25 in total – £980 for Eurostar tickets, £974.41 for accommodation, and £25.84 for subsistence.

Business Premier Class is Eurostar’s most luxurious class the railway company has to offer. Passengers can enjoy a three-course meal designed by a Michelin-starred chef with champagne, exclusive station lounges with cocktail bars, and more flexibility on departure times.

In a statement, Birmingham City Council has said that these were the only tickets available at the time of booking.

A council spokesperson said: “We always seek to ensure the best value possible when organising travel for members and officers. In the example cited, it was a busy week for demand, the council was part of a wider delegation and the only tickets left available at the time of booking were those at the price reported.

“As also stated in the council report, this visit related to the city sustaining and growing its international relationships to help improve the lives of people in all parts of Birmingham. This event was organised in conjunction with the British Ambassador to Belgium and the UK Government, giving Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region an opportunity to present itself in terms of its strengths and ambitions to further develop economic cooperation.”

“Other organisations represented included the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham City University, Aston University, West Midlands Innovation Alliance and West Midlands Growth Company because we all share the aim of positioning Birmingham as the number one UK city for European cities and regions to deal with – and events like this are essential if we are to achieve that goal.”

Documents show that Birmingham City Council spent just under £5,000 on 10 overseas trips in the first quarter of this financial year. Between April 1 and June 30, 2022, the council racked up a total spend of £4,987.68 on 10 international visits.

The most expensive trip of this period was the visit to Brussels, while the second most costly was the leader of the council Ian Ward’s trip to Espoo, a city in Finland not far from the capital Helsinki.

A total of £1,922.47 was spent on the Espoo trip. Flights for Councillor Ward and an officer cost £1,045.26, accommodation was £730.09, and subsistence £147.12.

The trip’s purpose was to represent Birmingham at the Eurocities Annual Conference. Councillor Ward was a keynote speaker and talked about Birmingham’s Route to Zero climate policy.

These two trips made up the bulk of the spending during the first quarter of this financial year. Just under £500 was also spent on Councillor Muhammad Afzal’s trip to Albert, a northern French town that became twinned with Birmingham in 1920, while a further £601.50 was spent on a trip to Almere in The Netherlands.

Six of the visits between April and June were at no cost to the city. These included trips to Rotterdam, Almere, the Polish city of Poznan, and Malaga in Spain.

The total spend of £4,987.68 this quarter is much lower than the figure from the last quarter of the previous financial year. £21,454.27 was spent on overseas travel between January 1 and March 31, 2022, with a total of six visits to Pakistan, France, the UAE, Italy and Belgium incurring the costs.

The same financial quarters (April 1 – June 30) in 2021 and 2020 saw £0 spent on travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the entire period between April 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021, the council spent nothing on overseas travel for the same reasons.