A City of Sydney councillor has slammed NSW councils for ignoring issues such as homelessness and road maintenance while racking up huge travel costs using ratepayers’ money.

The Daily Telegraph reports a number of councils are spending money to go overseas to learn about climate change and how to become “smarter” cities.

The City of Sydney spent $46,000 in taxpayers money in the 2018-19 financial year while Blacktown City Council spent $84,588 in 2017-18.

City of Sydney Councillor Angela Vithoulkas tells Steve Price councils are not focusing enough on local issues.

“I believe that a lot of that travel does not meet… requirements.

“We are in fact squandering a lot of the ratepayers’ money.

“The next time a councillor gets on a plane and goes overseas they should be thinking ‘is this where our people want me to use our money?'”

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