You’re booked: Met spends £1m a year on hotel rooms

The Metropolitan Police is spending more than £1 million a year on hotel bookings, some costing in excess of £35,000 a day, the Evening Standard

The cash-strapped force, which this week announced plans to cut 400 uniformed posts to help save £67 million next year, booked 10,861 rooms across the country, many near Scotland Yard.

The bills included £42,000 for 300 nights in the Park Plaza in Victoria and 57 bookings of conference rooms at the De Vere Holborn Bars, costing up to £35,190 a day.

While bookings ranged from Aberdeen to Belfast and Cardiff, showing the range of the Met's UK-wide responsibilities, they included more than 1,000 nights at London hotels.

Hilton hotels were especially popular, with bookings for a total of 153 nights, including Canary Wharf, Hyde Park, Islington, Kensington and Paddington.

Police insiders told the Standard that the Met deserved criticism for relying on hotels for conferences as it had many meeting rooms of its own.

A source said that overnight stays were normally restricted except for the serious and organised crime directorate and specialist operations teams.

Mayor Boris Johnson has pledged to cut the "huge amount of flab and fat" from organisations such as the Met to protect frontline officers.

His deputy Kit Malthouse announced this week that 400 custody officers were being replaced by civilians.

Joanne McCartney, Labour policing spokeswoman on the London Assembly, said: "The Mayor and his deputy talk about cutting police numbers to save money.

"You'd think if they really were in control of the ship they would look at cutting this kind of extravagant expenditure before taking police officers off London's streets."

The figures were disclosed in a freedom of information request by the Travelodge hotel chain. This followed the admission from the chairman of Essex Police Authority, Robert Chambers, that his force could recruit an extra 600 officers if staff used lowbudget accommodation rather than more expensive hotels.

The Met listed every hotel booked in the 2008/9 financial year but did not make clear the purpose of hiring the room. The total cost was £1,075,030.

The claims are believed to include instances where staff are required to work long hours because of exceptional events or remain on call overnight.

They are also thought to relate to police attendance at events such as political party conferences and sports finals.

Paul Wiltshire, the Met's head of travel services, said the Met typically paid 35 per cent less than full rates but it was up to "local budget holders" to monitor their department's expenditure.

A Met spokesman said the force had 45,000 staff, which placed a high demand on meeting space: "On occasions, facilities available at hotels are used for training and development. Met facilities are used whenever appropriate and available."

Force's top 10 places to stay

Copthorne Tara 987 nights, up to £134 a night
Hilton London Metropole 120 nights, up to £139
De Vere Holborn Bars 57 days at conference rates of up to £35,190 a day
Jurys Kensington 855 nights, up to £110 a night
Strand Palace 590 nights, up to £136 a night
Park Plaza Victoria 522 nights, up to £184 a night
Park Plaza Riverbank 206 nights, up to £233 a night.
NH Jolly St Ermin's 191 nights, up to £156 a night
Marriott Highcliff, Bournemouth 158 rooms, up to £96 a night
Radisson Edwardian Heathrow 154 nights, up to £151 a night