Glasgow councillors who consistently book travel arrangements at the last minute are to be outed under new cost-saving measures.

City chiefs have set up a new three-year deal worth £678,000 with Corporate Travel Management (North) Limited to book travel and accommodation for council staff.

The plan is to save around £7,000 each year on booking fees and by making travel arrangements early.

But those who make last gasp bookings have been warned they risk losing out on visiting conferences and other events under the scheme.

Speaking to the city’s contracts and property committee, a spokesman for Glasgow City Council’s Corporate Procurement Unit said: “The earlier you book a flight or a train ticket the cheaper it is.

“Using a new monitoring tool, folk who are consistently booking late will be highlighted and reports will be going to the council management team on a regular basis.

“There are sometimes very good reasons for booking late but there are annual conferences which people go to every year and they come to us two weeks beforehand. Hopefully this will help us save money on that.”

As part of the new deal, Corporate Travel Management will seek to book the most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective routes.

That is expected to include rail travel rather than flights to places such as London and other UK destinations.

The council hopes to make a 61% saving on air travel fees and a further 10% on car and ferry fees.

But there will be a new 25p fee for each rail travel booking made.

Despite that, contracts committee member, Norman MacLeod said: I would suggest that from a carbon savings point of view and a money savings point of view that we encourage all our staff, particularly going to London, to use the railway rather than flights.

“There is absolutely no doubt that this is the environmentally friendly thing to do. It may be that some people can’t book in advance. That’s fine, but we should consider making it policy to go by rail whenever we can rather than using airlines.”

But Ken Andrew had concerns about the Corporate Travel Management deal.

He said: “Clearly by going with this company it looks like the only identified savings are on the booking fee. But the saving is an insignificant amount.

“I’m concerned that this isn’t the answer in seeking best value. While we should always look for good value, we’ve saved on booking fees, but we should be trying to save money on travel.”

Despite those comments, the committee agreed to formalise the deal with Corporate Travel Management, which will begin on November 19 this year and end on February 28, 2022.