A Westcountry council paid £5,000 to send its chief executive on a management master class at a "luxury hotel" in the US.

The trip was uncovered as it emerged that Cornwall Council spent nearly £3 million last year on training and trips for staff and councillors between April 2009 and April 2010.

And already this year spending on conferences and courses reached £1.2 million up until November – with 20 weeks of the financial year still to run.

A Freedom of Information request revealed Kevin Lavery spent three nights at the luxurious Omni Berkshire Place Hotel, in New York, for the Wharton Fellows @ the Conference Board course offering Lessons for Profitable Growth. In its introductory notes the course boasts: "Wharton Fellows is an exclusive lifelong decision support network of senior executives, industry experts, Wharton faculty, and selected students focused on developing solid frameworks and deep knowledge to transform their thinking, their companies, and the world."

The same request also revealed another unnamed member of staff flew to Manchester for a "bottled water" seminar in December 2009.

One councillor is now demanding to know why the authority authorised spending of taxpayers' money on courses when swingeing service cuts are being demanded.

Councillor Alex Folkes said while he understood the need for staff training he questioned whether it was necessary to spend £4,500 on the course fee plus a £500 flight.

The Liberal Democrat frontbencher added: "As a council we should always be keen to develop our staff at all levels.

"The question here is whether this is something that is directly related to the problems and challenges that Cornwall faces at the moment and in the future.

"Or is this more of a career progression in which case we, as Cornwall Council taxpayers, should be interested in what will benefit Cornwall, not what will benefit an individual through their career.

"We are concerned about our council tax money, especially even more so that the county is having to face such big cuts."

A council spokesman said: "Kevin Lavery is a fellow of the prestigious Wharton School, the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, United States of America. As a fellow he is entitled to attend its highly-respected Master Classes, which combine experiential learning with visits to best-practice companies.

"These are designed for fellows who are leading organisational transformation. The programme also includes introductions to people who can help fellows engender growth within their own businesses.

"The fee and expenses were paid for by the council. His participation was part of his personal development and was properly approved. It was and remains the only training Mr Lavery has undertaken since joining Cornwall Council."