West Yorkshire Police to stop using first class trains

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-23451230

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West Yorkshire Police is to stop all its staff travelling first class on trains after spending more than £12,000 in fares in the past six months.

The force's figures showed the money was spent on 76 rail tickets with the most expensive costing £372 for a trip from Keighley to London via Leeds.

Most of the trips were to London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester.

Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson said the force had to review all aspects of its expenditure.

During the six-month period, 10 first class train journeys to London were made, costing more than £360 each.

There were also three trips to Edinburgh each costing £275.

'No longer appropriate'

Mr Burns-Williamson said: "It's a lot of money given the amount of cuts that we are receiving - £140m has been taken out of our budget over six years - and everybody, at whatever level, needs to be doing what we can to save money.

"So I'm pleased that now the chief constable has agreed that there will be no further first class rail travel.

"Clearly we need to review all aspects of spending across the force and everything we're involved in, so we need to closely review expenditure whether it's rail travel or anything else and that will be happening."

In a statement, West Yorkshire Police said: "The force feels it is no longer appropriate in the current climate for officers and staff to use first class travel. We are changing the policy. However, this has to go through a formal process which is already under way.

"Measures already in place to reduce the cost of travelling include providing video conferencing in all conference rooms and, when rail travel is necessary, encouraging the booking of trains at set times with lower fares."

Earlier the force said officers had already stopped travelling first class but later confirmed the policy was yet to be implemented.