Public foots helicopter bill for Royal visit to races
THE public spent £22,000 on sending the Queen to the races by helicopter, figures have revealed.
The Kentucky Derby blowout was revealed in an annual report that showed spending on the royals had risen an inflation-busting five per cent to £40million.
It means every taxpayer in Britain will fork out 66p a year for the monarchy - an increase of 4p.
Travel costs have gone through the roof, rising £600,000 to £6.2million.
The most expensive overseas trip was the Queen's state visit to the US last year to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement, when a plane was chartered at a cost of £381,813.
It was during the trip that she took the side jaunt by chopper to the glamorous racing event.
An anti-monarchist group last night spoke out about the spending.
The Republic group said the trip to the Kentucky Derby was unnecessary. Spokesman Graham Smith said "She took a day off and went to the horse races and it cost the taxpayers a lot of money.
"We're going to raise serious questions about that. Why are we paying for a day at the races?"
He added that the figures released yesterday were incomplete because they didn't include such things as security and the costs to local governments of royal visits.
Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the privy purse, said the Queen's financial advisers paid "continuous attention to obtaining value for money".
He said the increase in overseas travel spending was a result of a higher number of requests from the Foreign Office to make official visits abroad.
A palace spokeswoman said this applied to the Queen's trip to the Kentucky Derby as well.
She said Foreign Office officials had asked her to travel to the US and that the journey was part of an official visit when she was representing Britain as head of state.
The Queen's civil list, which funds her work, increased by £500,000 to £12.7million during the 2007-8 financial year.
The accounts also showed a staggering £32million black hole in maintenance projects on royal palaces.
The Queen's budget for maintaining Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal buildings has been frozen by the Treasury for the next three years.
Reid said £32million was needed to stop royal residences falling apart.
A plea for an extra £1million a year was rejected by ministers.
Original Source : http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2008/06/28/public-foots-helicopter-bill-for-royal-visit-to-races-86908-20623963/
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