The Kent Messenger Group has revealed how trips abroad by Kent county councillors have cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds a year – and used the information as an exclusive double-page spread.

Political editor Paul Francis uncovered how councillors had travelled to dozens of countries for various conferences, seminars, exchanges and fact-finding visits after making an FOI request for details, including costs.

Destinations included San Francisco, Washington, Virginia and Philadelphia in America, Cannes, Lille and Paris in France as well as cities in Belgium, Holland, Finland, Norway and Estonia.

The information led to an exclusive double-page spread across various KMG titles and was the latest in a series of FOI related stories published by the group.

The KMG has also exposed how consultants were paid £170,000 to deliver “executive coaching” to senior county council managers and how plans to replace the 11-plus test in Kent with a system of continuous assessment had been branded unworkable by a working group of education officials and teachers.

It has also published previously unavailable statistical information about speed camera sites in the county and revealed how a leading public school was to become a joint sponsor of a proposed specialist secondary school academy.