Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby is facing criticism after details emerged of a £210,000 “red carpet” fund under his direct personal control.

The Leader’s Development Budget is being used to subsidise a wide variety of events including royal visits, sponsorship of high-profile awards ceremonies, dinners for private organisations and trips in this country and abroad by Coun Whitby and his staff.

The opposition Labour group has accused the Tory council leader of using the little-known budget to keep sensitive spending decisions under wraps at a time when the local authority is having to deliver budget cuts totalling £320 million.

Questions are being raised about accountability since sums of up to £5,000 can be spent if approved by Coun Whitby and one of three cabinet support officers.

The council is refusing to identify the three officials in charge of the purse strings, claiming that to do so would infringe the Data Protection Act. Any sum above £5,000 has to be signed off by a council chief officer.

The fund is described by Coun Whitby’s office as a “last resort reserve after other routes of funding have been explored”.

But expenditure from the development budget does not come before cabinet meetings and has not been inspected at scrutiny committee meetings. Items paid for include policy brainstorming away-days for cabinet members and officials which cost £12,500.

Closing off city centre streets to enable filming of the BBC television drama series Hustle cost the council £13,343 in lost car parking income, but the sum was repaid by Coun Whitby’s fund.

The development budget was also used to cover the cost of Coun Whitby’s stay at the Hyatt Hotel during the 2010 and 2008 Conservative conferences in Birmingham and his stay with an aide at a hotel for the party’s 2009 conference in Manchester, at a total cost for the three events of nearly £8,000.

Two years ago, a root and branch review of the council’s press office and communications strategy, carried out at Coun Whitby’s request by a national agency, cost £17,625 and was paid for out of the fund.

A breakdown of £630,000 spending over the past three years, released following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Birmingham Post, shows that one of the fund’s main uses has been to lure VIPs and personalities to Birmingham. A total of £16,500 was spent on general expenses.

During 2010, £25,000 was approved by Coun Whitby to subsidise the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards at the NEC – an event which the council leader insisted did much to promote Birmingham’s international profile.

A reception in Birmingham for the US Ambassador cost £2,127, while hiring rooms and catering for visits by the Jamaican High Commissioner, the Midland Naval Officers Association and for St George’s Day celebrations cost a total of £9,063.

Sponsorship of two Royal Television Society Awards ceremonies cost £9,000, while £2,000 was used to support a festival in China.

A trade delegation to China led by Coun Whitby, with a diversion to Lyon in France for an awards ceremony, cost the council £12,389, although that was reduced by £3,100 through sponsorship.

The largest single payment from the fund – £55,936 – helped meet the cost of organising the 2008 re-opening of Birmingham Town Hall by Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Organisations with reason to be grateful to the leader’s special fund include Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, which was handed £30,000 sponsorship in 2008-09 to help pay for its annual banquet and £1,000 the following year towards its annual President’s dinner.

During 2009-10, the British Chamber of Commerce & Industries Conference received a £20,000 payment in return for agreeing to bring its annual conference to Birmingham.

On a smaller scale, the Edgbaston Archery & Lawn Tennis Association received £2,767 to cover the cost of a reception to mark its 150th anniversary.

Sponsorship of a Naval golf tournament and dinner cost £1,000, and there was £3,400 for a Midland Naval Officers Association dinner.

The council’s Labour group deputy leader, Ian Ward, is demanding closer public scrutiny of the development budget. Coun Ward (Lab, Shard End) said: “This is a secret fund and there is a question of accountability here.’’

Coun Ward claimed the fund allowed the council leader to “push favours” to organisations without having to declare that he had done so.

Coun Ward pointed out that the council’s general practice was to approve spending on foreign trips at public sessions of the Business Management Committee. By using the Leader’s Development Budget for trips to China and Kuwait there could be no proper scrutiny of the expenditure.

His allegations were rebutted by the council, which pointed out that the Leader’s Development Fund began life in 2003 when Labour ran the council.

A council spokesman said: ‘‘It is part of our budget process, passes through our systems and is subject to checks and balances.

"It has been used to support community organisations which might not otherwise have survived, put on events that otherwise would have been cancelled and bring in events to the city which otherwise would have gone elsewhere.’’

WHTIBY'S SPENDING HIGHLIGHTS
* Contribution to cost of ceremony to mark re-opening of Birmingham Town Hall £55,936
* Sponsorship of Brian Griffin photo exhibition £5,000
* Sponsorship of Birmingham Jazz Festival £65,000
* Subsidy for BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards £25,000
* Hotel accommodation and meals during 2010, 2009 and 2008 Conservative conferences £7,918
* Sponsorship of Chamber of Commerce events £51,000
* Sponsorship for Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens £22,500
* Trade delegations to Kuwait £4,895, and China £12,389
* Council House floral decorations £2,265
* Contribution to Marketing Birmingham for international events £12,500