Figures released show that a five-day trip by two officials Yorkshire Forward cost £27,750 to help promote the regiion as a potential base for major overseas Olympic teams looking to set up a pre-Games training camp before London 2012.

 

Yorkshire Forward insisted its officials carried out crucial fact-finding work and that the trip was the only way to gain access to Olympic Games decision makers.

But the TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group branded the trips "overseas junkets" and said fact-finding should have been done by email.

 

But Stephen Castle, the Councillor in charge of the Olympics for Essex County Council, complained that Yorkshire Forward's financial muscle gave them a big advantage when it came to promoting the county.

 

He said: "I have sat there [in Beijing] with three other regions on a stand half the size, purely because those regions do not have the budget to compete against something like Yorkshire Forward."

Yorkshire Forward confirmed that Neil Jenkinson, the head of culture and major events, and Martin Havenhand, the executive chair of the Yorkshire Committee for the 2012 Games, went to China.

They are both members of the "Yorkshire Gold" team and attended as part of a 26-strong delegation of officials from the UK.

A spokeswoman said the delegation, which was organised by the British Olympic Association and tourism body Visit Britain, was the only way for regions "to gain access to the Games and its key decision makers".

The two officials had their meals and accommodation paid for and gained access to a number of "showcase events".

They also met National Olympic Committees, Games organisers and sponsors.

Jenkinson said: "Yorkshire and Humber is committed to maximising the opportunities offered by the 2012 Olympic Games, be that through regional business gaining contracts, the region hosting training camps or the chance to promote sporting ambition to our region's young people.

"In order to fully understand these opportunities and what our region must do to maximise them, it was only sensible that a small delegation of representatives attended the Beijing Olympics on a fact-finding mission."