Reading Borough Council has spent more than £80,000 on travel expenses for councillors and its staff, a freedom of information request has revealed.
The council was asked to provide information on how much was spent on council-funded travel for the 2024/25 municipal year.
Figures provided by the council show £77,125.68 was spent on travel expenses for council officers and staff.
Meanwhile, £2,420.13 was spent on travel for the Mayor.
A council spokesperson revealed that part of that amount was spent so that councillor Glenn Dennis (Labour, Kentwood), the Mayor of Reading for 2024/25 could attend the official opening reception for the UEFA European Football Championship in Germany last year.
A further £1,855.52 was spent on travel expenses for councillors.
This involves councillors travelling to meetings of the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel at the force headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority offices at Newsham Court in Calcot.
In total, £81,401.33 was spent on travel expenses in the year, which ran from April 2024 to the end of March 2025.
These figures were revealed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Asked to explain the expenses, a spokesperson said: “Council officers, like social workers, often need to travel to carry out their regular duties and are then reimbursed for costs such as parking fees, parking permits, and train and bus fares which make up a majority of these costs.
“The total figure also includes travel cost for officers attending off-site meetings, courses and conferences, which are necessary as part of their job.
“In the same way, member travel costs were primarily for train travel for approved duties, such as attending meetings, courses and conferences, as set out in the Scheme of Councillors Allowances.
“Last year’s Mayor, Cllr Dennis, travelled to Reading’s longest established twin town of Düsseldorf, on the invitation of Düsseldorf City Council, to attend the official opening reception for Euro 2024 in June 2024.
“All other trips abroad made by the Mayor that year were in a personal capacity and not funded through the council.
“The Mayor has an important Civic role in supporting community organisations and groups across Reading, and the remainder of the Mayoral travel expenses were for taxi travel to attend events he had been invited to in his official capacity.”
Reacting to the FOI, Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This is an extraordinary amount of money to be spending on travel expenses for staff. It suggests there is significant room for cost-cutting.
“In particular, the thousands spent for the mayor to go to the Euros and other expenses looks to be a pretty indefensible use of cash, local taxpayers would expect his ceremonial role to be focused on genuinely local community events, not big, international sports tournaments.
“Reading council should be reviewing their policy on travel expenses and their policy on mayoral visits to see if savings can be made.”
