Spending on foreign travel by Kent County Council increased last year as councillors continued to make trips to a string of different destinations for conferences, summits and trade missions.

Destinations in 2007 were varied, but it was KCC's drive to build its own special relationship with the state of Virginia in America which accounted for a rising slice of taxpayers' money spent on foreign travel.

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The the increased spending is illustrated by the fact that the overall cost of sending a 17-strong party to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington to showcase Kent culture was £35,000 - almost treble the £13,000 spent by KCC on foreign travel in the whole of 2006.

'We must raise the health of the county' KCC's deputy leader Cllr Alex King (Con) has defended the spending arguing it "seriously raised [Kent's] profile in the US" . Cllr King, whose, whose foreign travel in 2007 - some including accompanying officers - cost around £16,000, said: "When you consider the costs of our American activities, they are a tiny proportion of the county council's overall budget but it has the potential to develop trade and maintain international links.

"We live in a county where the income per head is below the average for the South East and if we do not help raise the wealth of the county, we will have a problem."

'Justified or jollies - give us the facts'

Labour's opposition leader Cllr Mike Eddy said clearer feedback on the benefits of the travelling is needed "if the council does not want these trips to look like jollies". He said: "If the council wants to justify its activities abroad, we must have real data to go on."

He accepted there were times when foreign trips might be helpful in economic regeneration but queried the money spent forging links with Virginia asking: "How many American companies have expressed an interest in establishing themselves in Kent as a result compared to when we had no contacts with Virginia?"

Details of the costs of foreign travel were released to the Kent Messenger Group under the Freedom of Information Act.

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