A TORY councillor is considering a taxpayer-funded trip to Florida which could drain thousands from the public purse, The National can reveal.
Douglas Dodds, the Conservative provost of Stirling, has been invited to the tiny city of Dunedin - which has a population half the size of Paisley and which has been linked with Stirling since 1964.
Council documents show the local authority is willing to spend as much as £2170 on the cost of flights, accommodation and meals for the provost on the trip.
He was invited by the mayor of the US city - most notable for being where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis grew up - to attend between April 1 and 7 next year, according to an agenda paper for an upcoming meeting of Stirling Council’s civic panel.
Council officials have budgeted for Dodds, who represents Dunblane and Bridge of Allan, to fly to America from Edinburgh to Tampa via London at the cost of £1700 and for an additional £200 to cover the cost of accommodation in London.
It is stated on the document that accommodation is needed because of flight timings.
The document does not say whether the council would cover the costs of his return flight.
The National has found return flights to Tampa, the nearest airport to Dunedin, for the dates listed costing £700 – not including luggage costs.
The paper said the local authority can authorise “subsistence” food payments to the tune of £8 for breakfast, £12 for dinner and up to £25 for dinner per day.
Some of his planned activities in Dunedin listed on the draft agenda for the trip include attending a Dunedin Blue Jays baseball game, attending the city’s Highland Games parade and the games themselves.
The city has historic links to Scotland. It was linked with Stirling through a “sister cities” project and was named in 1882 by two Scottish merchants who petitioned to name it after the Gaelic name for Edinburgh.
Past provosts have made one trip to the city per term, the council documents state, and the office holder has acted as the “chieftain” of the local Highland Games.
Independent councillor Alasdair MacPherson, who represents Bannockburn, said some of Dodds’s constituents “could only dream” of a trip to Florida because of the cost of living crisis.
He told The National: “It beggars belief to be honest with you, especially during a cost of living crisis.
“At the end of the day, there’s thousands of families that could only ever dream about going to Florida.”
He added: “£200 for a hotel in London? You’ll not get The Savoy, but you’ll get a nice hotel in the month of April.
“I think the whole thing is crass and insensitive when families literally can’t afford to eat or heat.”
The costs of Dodds’s planned visit would also incur another £2000 for the council to cover the cost of a reciprocal visit by the Mayor of Dunedin in 2025, the council agenda highlighted.
Despite a return journey from Edinburgh to Tampa via Heathrow generating 2.36 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to carbonfootprint.com, the council documents said the trip generated no climate change “implications” for councillors to consider.
A Stirling Council spokesperson said: “An invite has been extended by the Mayor of Dunedin and, as a matter of process, the civic panel is required to make a decision in respect of this matter.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further before Thursday’s meeting.”
Dodds did not respond to a request for comment.
