Spending more than $36,000 on a council trip to a sister city in Japan was money well spent, Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark says.
The Invercargill City Council has revealed it spent $36,207 on a trip to Kumagaya in July. The two cities had been sister cities for 30 years and the trip was made, partly to celebrate the long association.
On the trip to Japan were Mr Clark, deputy mayor Tom Campbell and Crs Barry Stewart, Alex Crackett, Trish Boyle and Darren Ludlow. Accompanying them were one member of the council staff and an interpreter.
Before the trip, Cr Campbell indicated his intention to pay his own way, which he did.
The accommodation cost more than $13,000 and travel another $22,000. All up the four-day trip cost nearly $37,000.
When contacted last week, Mr Clark said although he was not a big fan of these sort of trips it had been a worthwhile one.
The city had the same interests as Invercargill and ties had been made in rugby, a popular sport in the Japanese city. Players might move between the two cities from a provincial level to high school, he said.
The trip was not just about rugby and there had been some good links made between the two councils, Mr Clark said. It was special to reach the 30-year mark and a delegation from Kumagaya had visited Invercargill earlier this year.
The delegation was busy all the time and it was good to see how a city like Kumagaya operated, Mr Clark said.
Kumagaya is a city of about 200,000 and is about 50km from Tokyo. It has a mayor-council form of local government with a directly elected mayor and a city council of 30 members.
Mr Clark said there was more central government funding for infrastructure in Kumagaya, something he favoured.
Invercargill also has a sister city relationship with Suqian City in northern China. Mr Clark said there were no plans to visit the city soon.
