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Renewed Green Capital accounts pressure
Bristol City Council’s top director has come under renewed pressure over the transparency of Bristol’s year as European Green Capital.
Campaigners claim that figures released after months of protests show Nicola Yates earned £18,000 for her work with Bristol 2015 on top of her £160,000 annual salary.
The council said Yates would not be commenting before the Green Capital’s final audit report is discussed at a public meeting on Friday.
Her alleged extra salary for her additional work came to light after former MP Stephen Williams published his latest in a chain of open letters to the council’s CEO.
Williams said his most recent reply from Yates showed that ten people went to the Paris climate change talks from Bristol, with a hotel bill of £29,000, subsistence of £3,165 and £3,661 on travel.
In a blog, Williams wrote: “The answers to my questions continue to point me to the laughable Audit Committee reports to Bristol Council.
“The opaque nature of these reports was what prompted me to ask the detailed questions. Otherwise I am directed to various websites and ‘information in the public domain’, which again is avoiding disclosing the detail.
“So any reasonable person must conclude that the mayor and council have something to hide.”
Councillors are due to discuss the Bristol 2015 Ltd final audit report at a meeting at 9am on Friday morning.
The report breaks down how £1.2 million of the council’s money was spent – mostly on grants to small projects and neighbourhoods in Bristol.
But campaigners believe that the way £7 million of public money from central government has been spent is not transparent enough, and are calling for line-by-line accounts to be published.
Read more: Green Capital: success or flop?
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