Provost heading for World Cup at taxpayers' expense

Published on 07/05/2006 00:58

GLASGOW'S Lord Provost is to fly to Germany at taxpayers' expense this summer to watch a World Cup football match.

Even though Scotland have failed to win through to the finals, Liz Cameron and her husband are to travel to Nuremburg after being invited to attend a match between Japan and Croatia on June 18.

The Lord Provost was invited by Nuremburg's mayor because of Glasgow's twinning link with the southern German city, which marks its 20th anniversary this year. She will be put up at the expense of the German city's mayor, but the cost of her and her husband's flights, amounting to 412, will be met by council tax payers.

Cameron's latest foreign foray will raise eyebrows, coming after it emerged she had spent 60,000 of taxpayers' money on trips abroad over just nine months. The figure was 11 times that of Edinburgh's Lord Provost for the same period.

Cameron has defended her visits, insisting that "nobody can promote Glasgow by simply sitting behind a desk".

Opposition parties said that the latest trip - while cheap - was not justified. Bill Aitken, Conservative MSP for Glasgow, said: "It hardly seems a worthwhile use of taxpayers' money."