Exclusive: Team responsible for creating smart motorways prefers rail travel judging by the level of taxpayers’ money spent in 2020
As the Highways England executive team responsible for creating smart motorways, it may seem inevitable they would travel regularly on the very network they insist is safer now they have removed the hard shoulder.
However, The Telegraph can reveal the 11 bosses at the Government owned company prefer to travel by train than car after claiming a staggering £103,875 of taxpayers’ money on rail fares in just one year.
A file of their expenses seen by this newspaper shows the executives claimed a total of £157,859 for the financial year to March 2020.
The disclosure of the well paid public sector bosses’ expenses has led to MPs and campaigners condemning the expenditure as “indefensible”.
The dossier shows how executives racked up £26,087 in hotel bills, a further £4,571 in flights and £14,045 in other travel and subsistence allowances. But, 65 per cent of the total claim was made up of rail fares, with some even claiming season tickets to attend meetings.
A further £2,708 was spent on car hire, £2,126 on parking and £1,122 on taxis.
Jim O’Sullivan, the outgoing chief executive on an annual salary of £456,727, made the smallest claims, including a £1 travel bill and £2 parking fee.
read full article here -> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/12/highways-england-chiefs-spent-majority-expenses-train-fares/