Greenwich Council has spent taxpayers' money on a trip to the Spanish seaside.

News Shopper can reveal through a Freedom of Information request that Greenwich Council used taxpayers' money to send a councillor and two council officers on a trip to northern Spain

Greenwich Council cabinet member for culture and creative industries, Councillor Miranda Williams and two council officers visited the Spanish resort of La Coruna from November 13 until November 16 last year for The Sail Training International and Tall Ships Conference.

The cost of the trip for the three delegates came to £2,889, which included conference fees, 'budget' airline travel and 'discounted' accomodation.

This was all paid for using the council's credit card.

Leader of Greenwich Conservatives Spencer Drury said: "It's the same old thing all over again, the council said the last Tall Ships Festival would cost £100,000 and it ended up costing millions.

"Couldn't they have talked to tall ship captains when they spent millions of pounds for them to come to Greenwich?

"If businesses had done that well when the tall ships were here then they would have sponsored the council to fly out there.

"Again this shows that the Tall Ships Festival is a vanity project."

The council previously spent around £10,000 to send a delegation including former council leader Chris Roberts to the Toulon Tall Ships Regatta and spent £5,500 to visit a talls ships conference in Riga.

A spokeswoman for Greenwich Council said: "We are required to attend the various project meetings including the La Coruna conference in Spain to promote our events and share good practice with and from other venues.

"A vital part of the conference was the debrief to senior Sail training International officers and other host ports.

"The conference also allowed us to promote the 2017 event and engage with Tall Ships captains to encourage them to come not just to the 2017 race but also independently to visit and use the Woolwich Pier as a mooring for visits to London."