£40,000 cost of Jubilee banquet said to be ‘modest’

A CASH-STRAPPED council has defended its decision to spend nearly £40,000 of taxpayers’ cash on hosting a Diamond Jubilee visit by the Queen.

She toured Manchester in March as part of her tour to celebrate 60 years on the throne.

A banquet for around 200 guests, including the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, was served at the city’s town hall.

The Queen then inspected a community garden created for the occasion in Albert Square and rounded off her visit by attending an indoor royal garden party at conference venue Manchester Central.

Manchester City Council said the cost of £39,262 was “modest” for an event of its magnitude and was a quarter of what it should have been, thanks to sponsors and “in-kind support”.

The visit also gave it the chance to congratulate its “army of volunteers”, it added.

The three-course lunch, made and served in-house, was described in a local newspaper as containing a “sumptuous selection of local produce”.

Two weeks before the royal visit, the council approved its 2012-13 budget and the second year of its £170 million spending cuts programme. A total of 2,000 job losses at the council were confirmed in the details of the first year of its cuts plan in 2011.