DUDLEY Council spent nearly £300,000 on three lavish trips to the French Riviera in the middle of a cost of living crisis – but two of the trips didn’t even take place.

The costs were incurred after Dudley Council sent nine representatives including its £176,000-a-year chief executive, to a major property conference on the French Riviera meant to attract investors to the borough.

Costs for the trip in March this year were originally stated as £100,000 after the two previous trips were cancelled due to Covid. But, a Freedom of Information request seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service showed a total of £279,154.80 was paid to Associate Events for all three events.

Marché International des Professionnels d’Immobilier (MIPIM), is the world’s biggest property conference, with investors, agents, bankers, and landlords from all over the world. Dudley Council sought to highlight land available for development in the borough to potential investors.

Councillors reportedly spent four nights at a four-star hotel boasting a rooftop pool and hosted a cocktail reception for potential investors.

A statement from the council responding to the FOI request said: “The council originally planned to attend MIPIM in March 2020 and March 2021, but these events were cancelled due to Covid-19. Discussions with Associate Events are ongoing regarding the potential for reimbursement of any costs due which have arisen from the MIPIM event being cancelled by the organisers in 2020 and again in 2021.”

The breakdown of costs for the three trips, one that took place and two that did not, are as follows:

Flights, hotels and expenses for attendance by nine people in March 2022

 – £13,056.10

 WMCA sponsorship for 2022

 – £5,000

 Payments to Associate Events in respect of the cancelled events in

 2020 and 2021 and the event which went ahead in March 2022

 – £279,154.80.

Leader of the opposition Councillor Qadar Zada said: ‘’At the time, the costs of the event for 2022 were made known, we were emerging from the pandemic and anticipating the inevitable strain on council budgets.

“So not surprisingly, there was considerable outrage from public, press and opposition alike that the Tory-led council should waste such a huge amount on what looked like a ‘jolly boys outing’. This latest disclosure adds insult to injury for the taxpayer now facing rising bills and a serious cost of living crisis’’

Councillor Patrick Harley, Dudley Council's leader, defended the trip claiming it would bring “significant investment potential”. He said: “We have huge ambitions for Dudley borough residents and businesses and attendance at the world’s largest property market puts us at the top table to secure multi-million-pound investment into Dudley.

“On the back of our attendance, we have already welcomed dozens of investors and developers into Dudley for site visits around a number of our key development areas. We continue to have discussions with around 30 strong leads from MIPIM, both developers and investors.

“There are many prime sites for housing development across the borough, just three of these alone – Wellington Road, Daniels Land and Portersfield would bring in around £120million through development, and also bring in around £0.75millon worth of council tax each year from around 650 new homes.

“This is significant investment potential which is only made possible through our big ambitions for the borough and will add to the £1 billion worth of regeneration which is already underway.”