Former Newcastle Chronicle editor and well-known media consultant Alison Hastings has today been named as the biggest spender on the BBC Trust.
Hastings, who lives in Liverpool where she runs a media consultancy business, filed the biggest overall claim of £7,613.78 of the four national trustees.
The majority of her expenses were for rail travel – mainly between London and Liverpool – spending £4,703.80, as well as almost £2,000 on accommodation.
The highest expense claims were made by all four national trustees – the others being named as Elan Closs Stephens (Wales), Bill Matthews (Scotland) and Aideen McGinley (Northern Ireland).
According to the Arial in-house publication, McGinley racked up over £2000 on driving a car, mostly going back and forth between her home and Belfast’s Broadcasting House. Stephens claimed for three nights in a London hotel at a cost of £435, with Matthews claiming about £1,700 to stay mostly in London hotels on 14 separate occasions.
Former chairman Lord Patten, who stepped down in May on health grounds, claimed a total of £1,258.19 almost entirely for private car hire in and around London. His acting successor Diane Coyle claimed £1,411.75.
Among some of the highest individual claims were a New Year’s Eve return flight to Glasgow at £344.12, and £152.50 for a single rail ticket between London and Liverpool.
Trustee expenses are made public every six months and have been released for the last five years.
You can see the full report here.
