To brand Bradford Council’s annual visit to the MIPIM property convention in Cannes as a “jolly” is perhaps a little unfair.

No-one will really believe that the delegation sent from Bradford will spend the time sunning themselves on the beaches in the South of France and drinking cocktails at sundown.

But the Taxpayers’ Alliance’s questioning of whether the trips – costing more than £32,000 over the past four years – are necessary, is perhaps a pertinent discussion to have.

Public spending is being slashed across the board, and the test for expenditure of this nature is whether it has any real and positive effects.

What shouldn’t happen, though, is that all such events are dismissed out of hand as unnecessary.

That could result in throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as sometimes being in the right place at the right time can pay dividends.

If the £13,000 spent on this year’s MIPIM event brings in investment and drives forward the regeneration of Bradford, then it could be money well spent.

Bradford Council does, however, need to ensure that attendance at such events is in the real interests of the district and brings positive benefits if it is to justify them to an electorate wanting assurances that their already thinly-stretched contributions to the public purse are being spent wisely.