Cuts council blows £40k on Windsor visit
Sunday 13 May 2012
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EmailManchester City Council was forced today to defend a decision to splash nearly £40,000 on a visit by Elizabeth Windsor two weeks after approving millions in budget cuts.
The monarch toured the city in March as part of a 12-month junket to mark her 60 years on the throne.
A council spokesman claimed the cost of £39,262, which included a banquet for around 200 people, was "modest" for an event of its magnitude and was a quarter of what it should have been thanks to sponsorship.
Two weeks earlier council leaders had approved a 2012-13 budget and the second year of a £170m cuts programme involving 2,000 job losses.
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