I must admit I have got it all wrong about the Londoner, the Mayor’s £3 million self-publicity exercise. I received a letter from him this morning detailing how the Londoner is funded. Apparently the letter was prepared on 11th July but not sent out until today due to an administrative error.
See letter: London Mayor 11-7-2006.doc
According to the Mayor spending on the Londoner was contained within its 2005/6 budget of £2,882,800. I had previously imagined that income from advertising charges for the 3/4 pages of display advertising from GLA bodies in each issue was in addition to this budget and that the budget was a GLA budget. I was wrong. Apparently the GLA only contributed £632,800 towards the Londoner. The rest comes from tax on the GLA “family”.
Transport for London are taxed £1,500,000. In other words £1.5 million of road safety projects are on the shelf to make way for this wasteful spending.
LDA are taxed £500,000 to pay for it. I really do not see how spending £500K on the Londoner helps promote London’s economy.
The Met have to make a contribution of £250K. Would they rather spend this cash on coppers? I would.
3 replies on “Mayor reveals Londoner funding”
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