Queen’s visit costs Manchester £40,000
- Post 13 May 2012
- By PressTV
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| Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 60th year on the throne this year |
Manchester City Council spent £40,000 on hosting the British Queen when she toured Manchester in March as part of the celebrations marking her 60th year on the throne.
During the Queen’s visit, a banquet for nearly 200 guests including her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, was served at Manchester’s town hall.
Manchester City Council has defended the expenditure of the taxpayers’ money, saying the sum of money was “modest” for an event of such magnitude.
“The overall cost of such a major event like this was modest - and, thanks to generous sponsorship and in-kind support, about a quarter of what it should have been,” said a council spokesperson
This comes as only two weeks before the Queen toured Manchester, the city council approved its 2012-13 budget, confirming a total of 2,000 job losses and the second year of its £170 million spending cuts programme.
“It would have been inconceivable for England's main city outside the capital to ignore the jubilee. We certainly weren't going to turn down the offer of a visit from the Queen and we put on a series of events that did Manchester proud,” the spokesperson added.
Queen Elizabeth II is Britain’s longest-living monarch and is the second-longest reigning British monarch after Queen Victoria who reigned for 63 years.
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Source: PressTV
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