Manchester City Council has paid for  almost 500 plane journeys in the last two years, including to such hard to get to locations as Birmingham, London, Southampton, Exeter and Norwich.  And, along with global temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations, The number of flights is going up

A Freedom of Information Act request, made because the Council’s bureaucrats chose, again, not to provide a detailed breakdown to elected members, has revealed the following

in 2014/15 there were 218 such bookings made, to places as diverse as Riga, Beijing, Poznan and Lisbon.  But domestic flights also featured, including to Southampton (on several occasions, including 21 May 2014, 10 February 2015 and 17 March 2015)  , Exeter (7 July 2014, 24 March) and so on. On 10th March 2015, they paid for a flight to Norwich, citing “train, cost, journey time”

in 2015/16 there were 249 flights, to Dublin, Venice, Rome and other destinations.  Oh, and on 10th November 2015 someone flew from Glasgow to Birmingham on the tax payers’ dime.  More trips to Southampton (22 January 2016) Exeter (24 March 2016)

Here’s a couple of screengrabs of what MCFly got sent. If you’re desperate for the fine detail, email mcmonthly@gmail.com and the spreadsheets can be forwarded.

and

oh, and here is one where the person seems to have flown to London for some training and then flown back two days later.  Stay classy.

Tomorrow, we’ll reveal the City Council’s plan to reduce its flights. Watch this space.

Has MCFly bothered to contact Manchester’s “environmental groups” for comment? No.  Because seriously, why bother?  Either they can’t or they won’t try to scrutinise and pressure the Council.