Will the government have the guts to cut the NDA overspending today?

This article comes from Whitehaven the home of the NDA 

... AND £52,000 FOR NDA’S CONFERENCE

By Alan Irving

Last updated at 16:37, Wednesday, 13 October 2010

A ROW has erupted over a spend of £500 a head for 104 people at a nuclear conference in a lavish Manchester hotel.

Delegates from around the UK attended the two-day conference at the five-star Lowry, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s hotel of choice for its annual get-together with stakeholders from around its 19 nuclear sites.

The conference cost £52,000 – £500 for each delegate.

The NDA paid the bill for all the delegates, one of whom was Coun Tim Knowles, attending on behalf of the Nuclear Local Authorities. But he said: “I didn’t want to go. It was bad value for money.”

The row erupted after a meeting of the West Cumbria Stakeholders Group when Coun Knowles criticised the spectacle of “people being chauffeured to Manchester and staying at expensive hotels”. But afterwards he himself was taken to task by the group’s chairman, David Moore, for not saying he had enjoyed the same hospitality. “Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” Coun Moore said.

Yesterday Coun Knowles said: “Everybody at the local stakeholders’ meeting knew where I was staying, there was no need for me to say. I didn’t want to go, I had to because I was a delegate and that’s where the conference was being held, at the most expensive hotel in Manchester.

“My main point is that the NDA’s approach to stakeholder relations is dysfunctional. The cost of this conference must have been huge.”

The NDA confirmed the £52,000 cost and felt it was value for money. “We got The Lowry at a most competitive rate among hotels in Manchester. This was a two-day conference with a one-night stay for the delegates. As the booking was made a year in advance it was easier to go ahead than cancel.” However, the authority said it is now looking at different forms of engaging with stakeholders, partly because of the need to cut costs.

First published at 15:50, Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk