Post by Teddy Bear on Apr 10, 2012 21:29:48 GMT
The title of the thread pretty much sums it up. A completely unnecessary move that's cost billions, that nobody seems to want except the Labour councillor whose domain the BBC now comes into, and which the BBC justified with some bullshit excuse.
When questioned on this massive expense to shuttle staff back and forth this is the BBC response.
A BBC spokesman added: “The BBC is a major broadcasting organisation with production bases across the UK and a news operation that covers a constantly changing global news agenda, so some element of travel is inevitable. “However, we are mindful that we spend public money and we work hard to keep this expenditure to a minimum.” She added that bookings also included “multiple passengers”.
While reading it I felt I would love to have those responsible for this absurd decision on a gantry with a noose around their neck while they mouthed this response, and just open the trapdoor when they finished while asking them - so why did you move there?
When questioned on this massive expense to shuttle staff back and forth this is the BBC response.
A BBC spokesman added: “The BBC is a major broadcasting organisation with production bases across the UK and a news operation that covers a constantly changing global news agenda, so some element of travel is inevitable. “However, we are mindful that we spend public money and we work hard to keep this expenditure to a minimum.” She added that bookings also included “multiple passengers”.
While reading it I felt I would love to have those responsible for this absurd decision on a gantry with a noose around their neck while they mouthed this response, and just open the trapdoor when they finished while asking them - so why did you move there?
The BBC's £2m London-to-Salford travel bill
The BBC has spent more than £2 million ferrying and flying staff and guests between London, Manchester and Salford in two years, despite promising to employ more people locally, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
By Andrew Hough
New figures show the public service broadcaster paid for more than 24,000 train journeys and at least 500 flights between the capital and the North West, where its new media centre is based.
The train travel bill totalled more than £1.84 million while air mileage cost licence fee-payers nearly £77,000.
The corporation’s bill for rail journeys increased by nearly 30 per cent in 12 months, the figures released under Freedom of Information laws show.
The statistics cover journeys made through the public broadcasters “central booking agents” for the financial years 2009/10 and 2010/11.
It covers journeys made by staff from all BBC departments and also includes travel undertaken by guests.
The actual spending would have been higher, however, because the figures do not include journeys paid for by individual staff and claimed back through the corporation’s expenses system.
Officials defended the costs, insisting that every effort was made to keep rail and air travel expenditure to a minimum.
They declined to release further details because it would mean having to trawl manually more than 200,000 individual expenses claims.
According to the figures, in 2009/2010 more than 10,500 train trips were made from the capital to Manchester and Salford at a cost of nearly £805,000.
The following year, the rail travel bill increased by 29 per cent, with almost 13,500 journeys costing more than £1 million.
Meanwhile, 316 flights to the North West were booked in 2009/2010 at a cost of £51,310. The following year air travel halved to 190 plane trips costing £25,349.
The air travel is for flights taken from all major London airports to Manchester and Salford but does not include “multi sector” trips.
Officials declined to identify staff or guests who made the journeys. The class of tickets was also not disclosed.
The corporation said it covered a period before staff moved into the BBC North headquarters, which officially opened in May last year.
Angela Sargeant, the BBC’s Head of Expenses Management, said because offices and programmes were made across the world travel was “essential to its core business”.
“We have always encouraged rail travel over flights, and our expenses policy states that trains should be taken within mainland UK unless there are time constraints or flights are significantly cheaper,” she said.
“In addition, transport may be provided for guests travelling to Manchester or Salford for meetings or TV and radio appearances.”
Under a criticised £1.5 billion plan, the BBC intends to move 50 per cent of its programming out of London to hubs in Salford, Glasgow, Cardiff and Bristol.
MediaCity in Salford is to employ more than 2,300 staff in departments including BBC Sport, Breakfast, Radio 5 Live and Children. Earlier this year, it was disclosed that only 26 new jobs had been awarded to locals.
The total number of Salford people working building, which cost £650 million to build, totals 117. A further 90 support staff are also working at BBC North, which has cost the corporation nearly £190 million to set up.
BBC bosses insisted recruitment was on merit rather than postcode but remained committed to creating opportunities for local people.
But the move has proved unpopular with some BBC staff and presenters refusing to relocate and will instead commute.
The broadcaster's official policy is not to pay travel expenses for freelance presenters who live in the South-East and work in Salford.
A BBC spokesman added: “The BBC is a major broadcasting organisation with production bases across the UK and a news operation that covers a constantly changing global news agenda, so some element of travel is inevitable.
“However, we are mindful that we spend public money and we work hard to keep this expenditure to a minimum.” She added that bookings also included “multiple passengers”.
The BBC has spent more than £2 million ferrying and flying staff and guests between London, Manchester and Salford in two years, despite promising to employ more people locally, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
By Andrew Hough
New figures show the public service broadcaster paid for more than 24,000 train journeys and at least 500 flights between the capital and the North West, where its new media centre is based.
The train travel bill totalled more than £1.84 million while air mileage cost licence fee-payers nearly £77,000.
The corporation’s bill for rail journeys increased by nearly 30 per cent in 12 months, the figures released under Freedom of Information laws show.
The statistics cover journeys made through the public broadcasters “central booking agents” for the financial years 2009/10 and 2010/11.
It covers journeys made by staff from all BBC departments and also includes travel undertaken by guests.
The actual spending would have been higher, however, because the figures do not include journeys paid for by individual staff and claimed back through the corporation’s expenses system.
Officials defended the costs, insisting that every effort was made to keep rail and air travel expenditure to a minimum.
They declined to release further details because it would mean having to trawl manually more than 200,000 individual expenses claims.
According to the figures, in 2009/2010 more than 10,500 train trips were made from the capital to Manchester and Salford at a cost of nearly £805,000.
The following year, the rail travel bill increased by 29 per cent, with almost 13,500 journeys costing more than £1 million.
Meanwhile, 316 flights to the North West were booked in 2009/2010 at a cost of £51,310. The following year air travel halved to 190 plane trips costing £25,349.
The air travel is for flights taken from all major London airports to Manchester and Salford but does not include “multi sector” trips.
Officials declined to identify staff or guests who made the journeys. The class of tickets was also not disclosed.
The corporation said it covered a period before staff moved into the BBC North headquarters, which officially opened in May last year.
Angela Sargeant, the BBC’s Head of Expenses Management, said because offices and programmes were made across the world travel was “essential to its core business”.
“We have always encouraged rail travel over flights, and our expenses policy states that trains should be taken within mainland UK unless there are time constraints or flights are significantly cheaper,” she said.
“In addition, transport may be provided for guests travelling to Manchester or Salford for meetings or TV and radio appearances.”
Under a criticised £1.5 billion plan, the BBC intends to move 50 per cent of its programming out of London to hubs in Salford, Glasgow, Cardiff and Bristol.
MediaCity in Salford is to employ more than 2,300 staff in departments including BBC Sport, Breakfast, Radio 5 Live and Children. Earlier this year, it was disclosed that only 26 new jobs had been awarded to locals.
The total number of Salford people working building, which cost £650 million to build, totals 117. A further 90 support staff are also working at BBC North, which has cost the corporation nearly £190 million to set up.
BBC bosses insisted recruitment was on merit rather than postcode but remained committed to creating opportunities for local people.
But the move has proved unpopular with some BBC staff and presenters refusing to relocate and will instead commute.
The broadcaster's official policy is not to pay travel expenses for freelance presenters who live in the South-East and work in Salford.
A BBC spokesman added: “The BBC is a major broadcasting organisation with production bases across the UK and a news operation that covers a constantly changing global news agenda, so some element of travel is inevitable.
“However, we are mindful that we spend public money and we work hard to keep this expenditure to a minimum.” She added that bookings also included “multiple passengers”.