The Kent Messenger Group has used the Freedom of Information Act to reveal plans by the county council to spend £225,000 of taxpayers’ money sponsoring a major cultural festival in America.

The expenditure came to light following a request made by political editor Paul Francis, who also reported that Kent County Council was spending a further £265,000 developing its links with the state of Virginia.

The FoI request also revealed that KCC paid consultants £50,000 to report on the viability of direct flights from Kent’s airport at Manston to America.

Paul said: “Kent County Council had been making a great deal of its involvement with the festival but made no effort to disclose how much it might be costing taxpayers in public money.

“The reason we made the request is because about a year ago KCC invested £121,000 from the Kent Regeneration Fund in a cheap airline operating out of Manston Airport.

“They lost that money because the airline operator went into administration and so we wondered what other projects KCC had invested in over the past 12 months.

“Their line is that they see a flood of American visitors pouring into the county but clearly some people have met this with a lot of scepticism. At a time when the council is talking about trimming spending it’s been a good story in that context.

“We went to press with it last week and we’ve had a fairly sharp response from the opposition parties.

“We ran the story straight and we’ve focussed our follow-up on what they have got to say. Their point of view is that it is a fairly substantial investment that could end up being a waste of money.”

While KCC’s involvement with the Smithsonian Festival in Washington in 2007 had been public knowledge for some time; its financial investment had not previously been disclosed and had never been discussed in public by the council’s cabinet.

KCC deputy leader Cllr Alex King told the paper that he could not guarantee a return on the investment but insisted the potential for the Kent economy was “very significant”.

He said that while some of the £225,000 could be used to meet the costs of groups or individuals participating in the festival, commercial enterprises would have to pay their own way.