£110k a year bill for tea and coffee
THE BBC spent a staggering £110,000 on free tea and coffee for staff and visitors at its northern headquarters last year.
It finally gave in and revealed the figure yesterday after a 16-month fight to keep the details secret.
It had stubbornly refused to answer a Freedom of Information request submitted on January 2 last year. BBC bosses claimed the answer would “damage its commercial interests”.
But their objection was eventually overruled by the Information Commissioner.
The total bill for catering contractors to provide the free brews for the 12 months up to last November was £110,218 or £302 a day.
The bill revealed that £19,486 was spent on coffee, £36,218 on tea and £54,613 on milk to stock the self-service kitchens at the swish new offices in Salford Quays, Manchester, which are home to about 2,700 staff, including BBC Breakfast and Radio Five Live.
In 2014 the company Servest landed a contract worth up to £42.5million over five years to provide catering at 18 BBC sites.