The amount Reading council spends on mayoral events and services has been revealed, with tens of thousands of pounds being spent each year.
Reading Borough Council spent £81,401.33 on travel expenses in 2024/25, a freedom of information request has revealed. That total included £77,125.68 for council staff, £2,420.13 for the mayor and £1,855.52 on councillor services.
The FOI led Conservative group leader Cllr Raj Singh to ask for an itemised breakdown at a council meeting. Cllr Singh (Conservative, Kentwood) said: “In light of the recent article revealing that the council spent over £81,000 on travel expenses in 2024/25 — including £2,420.13 by the mayor — and with the Tax Payers’ Alliance calling this level of spending ‘extraordinary’, will the council publish a full, itemised breakdown of all costs linked to the mayor and civic office over the last three financial years?”
The Labour administration then published the figures. The largest single area of spending was £18,604.40 on car services in 2022-23, when Cllr Rachel Eden (Labour, Whitley) was mayor.
One notable cost was for Cllr Glenn Dennis (Labour, Kentwood), the 2024-25 mayor, attending a Euros 2024 match at Düsseldorf Arena — he watched Ukraine beat Romania 2-1 at the invitation of Dr Stephan Keller, the Lord Mayor of Reading’s twinned town of Düsseldorf.
Most mayoral engagements are local. Examples given include Black History Month events, the Pride of Reading awards and the naming of the Windrush Roundabout.
Ellie Emberson, lead councillor for corporate services and resources, did not accept that the overall travel bill was “extraordinary”. She pointed to major events over the past three years: the 75th anniversary of the Düsseldorf twinning in 2022, and two civic memorial services after the deaths of Deputy Mayoress Collette Dennis in 2023 and former Mayor Bet Tickner in 2024.
Explaining the high car costs, Cllr Emberson (Labour, Coley) said: “In 2023, a decision was taken to discontinue the Mayoral car service and instead utilise local taxi transportation. This change has had a significant and visible impact on transport costs over the three-year period.”
She initially rejected the request for mayoral services spend, suggesting Cllr Singh should read the council’s annual budget properly. He replied: “We do read our papers, and some of us read them critically.” He then asked for a simple annual summary of actual expenditures.
Cllr Emberson agreed to publish itemised mayoral spending and stressed the £77,125.68 travel figure covers all council staff, including social workers and employees in the education sector at maintained schools. She said: “It’s quite right that travel for social workers is paid for.”
On releasing the detail, she added: “That is something that can be made publicly available. It’s important that people see the breakdown, and I’m sure the mayoral team will have no issue in preparing that little table.”
The figures were revealed at a policy committee meeting on 17 December.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
