MORE than £9,000 has been spent by Redbridge Council on flights for its staff over the past three years, the Guardian can reveal.

The trips, which amount to 11 separate excursions by over 60 members of staff, were to a variety of educational and social services conferences in places as diverse as Paris, Dublin, Toronto and Beijing.

The figures, obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, show that there were five trips in 2008 at a cost of £3,631, three foreign visits in 2007 costing £1,735, and a further £3,748 spent in 2006 on three sets of flights.

Most of the flights were paid for by Government grants.

A spokesman for the council defended the authority’s "occasional" use of trips abroad, saying they were to help provide "the best possible service to its residents."

He added: "The vast majority of trips were part of a Government-funded programme to enable Redbridge teachers to learn from best practice overseas.

"On the few occasions where the council does pay for staff to go abroad, we always ensure the benefit of attending these events vastly outweighs the cost of the trip."

But Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said too many local authorities were sending staff abroad when "the real problems are back home."

He added: "This is a large amount of money Redbridge Council is spending on jet setting around the world.

"If they want to improve how to give taxpayers a better deal they should simply take a tube ride to Hammersmith and Fulham where they’ve cut council tax three years in a row."