More than £2,000 was spent on travel expenses for the mayor of Reading over the last year.
Councillor Alice Mpofu-Coles (Labour, Whitley) became the mayor of the town a year ago.
She became the first Black female Mayor of a refugee background at the council’s annual meeting in May 2025.
Since then, cllr Mpofu-Coles has attended a series of engagements, including the opening of the new Thames Valley Police headquarters and Global Combat Air Programme offices in Whitley, the Pride of Reading awards, kicking off the Half Marathon and unveiling the memorial for PC Andrew Harper.
A freedom of information (FOI) request has revealed that more than £2,000 has been spent on travel expenses in her time as mayor.
The largest single spend was £425.68 on flights for cllr Mpofu-Coles and the Mayor’s escort to visit the twin town of Clonmel, Ireland, for a mayoral exchange visit.
Reading has been twinned with Clonmel since 1994, which is home to the Bulmers cider factory and is known as Ireland’s most beautiful inland town.
Pictures of the visit were not available.
The majority of the travel expenses were for taxis for engagements for cllr Mpofu-Coles and her deputy mayor cllr Paul Gittings (Labour, Coley).
A total of £1,669.20 was spent on taxi rides in 2025/26.
You can see how much was spent each month below:
May – £254.40
June – £199.20
July – no expenses
August – £104.20
September – £268.80
October – £213.60
November – £104.40
December – £72.00
January – £84.00
February – £64.80
March – £303.60
The information officer who responded to the FOI said: “For context, the Mayor of Reading, alongside her deputy, have attended 263 community and charitable events throughout the Mayoral year so far, supporting residents, voluntary groups and local causes.
“It is also important to emphasise that Mayor or her Deputy will routinely attend these events following a direct invitation by community groups or charitable organisations themselves, who welcome their attendance.
“The Mayor and her deputy will routinely make their own way to these engagements and only make use of taxi when it is warranted, relying on taxis only when safety concerns and late-night travel make using them a necessity.
“The cost of the occasional use of taxis, when required, is significantly lower than the previous use of a Mayoral car, which was discontinued in 2023, with no plans to reintroduce it.”
This car was revealed as a Tesla Model 3 following a separate FOI.
A spokesperson added: “Given the enormous value and contribution the Mayor brings to community organisations across the town by accepting invitations to their events, the council does not consider an average cost of £7.96 per event over the course of a year extravagant.”
There were no train fares for conferences or events within the UK.
Added up, a total of £2,094.88 on travel expenses in 2025/26, £325.25 less than the £2,420.13 spent in 2024/25.
The previous year, the largest spend was £919.98 on flights for cllr Glenn Dennis (Labour, Kentwood) to watch a Euros 2024 football match in Düsseldorf, Germany on the invite of that city’s mayor.
