FOREIGN trips by Kent county councillors continue to cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds.

During 2005, Kent county councillors travelled to Europe and America for conferences, seminars, fact-finding missions and trips to drum up investment.

The details were disclosed to the Kent Messenger Group under the Freedom of Information Act. This follows earlier revelations of councillors’ and council officials’ foreign travel.

Kent County Council has again insisted the trips are an important part of its drive to deliver ground-breaking services.

Last year, KCC cabinet members and several other leading councillors again visited America, taking in Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Virginia and Washington. They also travelled across Europe, to Rome, Prague, Cannes, Brussels, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

In total, the 30-plus trips made by senior councillors cost the taxpayer about £50,000.

The most widely-travelled politician was KCC deputy leader Cllr Alex King (Con), whose cabinet role includes international affairs. He made 10 trips on county council business, last year, chiefly to America.

They included a four-day visit to Virginia in November, during which, according to KCC, “Kent was invited to join Virginian Indians at a Pow Wow meeting in order to negotiate their participation in an international festival at Gravesend”.

A nine-day trip in May, during which councillors attended “the official signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between KCC and the Commonwealth of Virginia”, cost £11,796.

Meanwhile, Cllr King and two council officers were among a four-strong party visiting Hungary and Slovakia in September to “review progress on joint projects after the signing of a co-operation agreement between KCC and Bacs-Kiscun County”. The week-long trip cost £6,644.

Three councillors joined 87 secondary head teachers at the conclusion of a week-long visit to America in October, but met some of their own costs. The education authority attracted criticism over the visit and it has emerged county council leader Cllr Paul Carter, along with cabinet colleagues Cllr John Simmonds and Cllr Leyland Ridings, all travelled to Seattle for a little under £800 after partially paying their own way. Schools which sent head teachers each had to pay about £1,500.

A seven-strong group of head teachers, education officials and Cllr Carter, who was then cabinet member for education, travelled to San Francisco in February, to visit local charter schools. The eight-day trip cost £3,716.

In other visits, former cabinet councillor Richard King (Con) travelled to Seattle in October on a “fact finding mission” to the city’s community TV station. The three-day visit cost £1,500.

Cllr Kevin Lynes, now cabinet member for adult services, also visited Seattle, in June, for a local government conference hosted by Microsoft. It cost nearly £1,600.

County council chiefs insist going abroad is not about junkets or jaunts but a vital part of their efforts to get the best for Kent’s council tax payers.

County councillors continued foreign travel in February when Cllr Alex King and his cabinet colleague Cllr Graham Gibbens (Con) went to Cannes in the south of France for a week-long exhibition.

Cllr King said: “One of the reasons we are ahead of the pack in Kent is our ceaseless search for new ideas, new ways of doing things, better ways to get value for money for every resident, new ways to boost jobs for the future in Kent.

"We could adopt the Luddite mentality but residents would no longer get the benefit of the best value for money services we can find.

"Councils from all over the world beat a path to our door to find out how we do things."