Prince Charles’ visit cost Warwick University over £15,000

New data released under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that Prince Charles’ flying visit to the University of Warwick cost £15, 543. 

The visit-which took place earlier this year-involved the Prince of Wales visiting Warwick’s campus to open the National Automotive Innovation Centre, which specialises in “electric and autonomous vehicle technologies”.

The Prince of Wales spent “around half an hour at the centre, part of the Warwick Manufacturing Group, which included checking out the new Land Rover Defender.

“The Prince also met dignitaries, including West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and the university’s Vice Chancellor, Stuart Croft during a tour on February 18th”.

This flying visit cost the university: “£2,606 in cleaning and maintenance costs, £457 for additional security staff, £9,690 for conferencing, including staging and food, £1,835 for printed materials and £954 for a laser-cut plaque which the Prince unveiled”. All of this culminated in the final grand total of £15,543.

In a response to the Coventry Telegraph the University of Warwick said: “Several of the costs are for materials that will be re-used for other purposes, along with other events (for example: brochures and printed backdrops).

“The catering was in-house catering provided by Warwick Food and Drink and was for other events on the day, no catering was provided to HRH. The University took the opportunity to host some further meetings for networking purposes in the same building on this day.

“The University also had approximately 150 guests who were invited to join one of two meetings before and after the visit, of which the catering costs related, and not the HRH visit directly.

“The University has provided these costs as these additional events would not necessarily have happened on that particular day if the HRH visit had not taken place, so there is an indirect link.”

The University also stated that the cleaning and maintenance costs mainly came under the category of “internal charges”, where “one university charges another for services”.

During the visit, the Prince of Wales gave a speech, hailing the West Midlands as being at the “forefront of massive change in the automotive industry”.