BATH and North East Somerset Council spent £12,600 to host Queen Camilla last month, a freedom of information request by campaigners has revealed.

The Queen visited the city in February to mark the 850th anniversary of St John’s Foundation, a charity that works to change people’s lives around Bath and its surrounding area which she has been patron of since 2009. She had tea with residents of the charity’s historic almshouses before heading to Bath Abbey, where she was welcomed by almost 900 school children from seven primary schools supported by the charity, to unveil a plaque.

But republicans have warned that the event came with a price for the local council taxpayer. Danni Wayne Rawlings, a volunteer with campaign group Republic, which campaigns replace the monarchy with an elected head of state, discovered the cost to the council through a freedom of information request.

Bath and North East Somerset Council spent £4,956.93 in council services across events, emergency planning, CCTV, highways, parking, communications, cleansing, and heritage services, and on external stewards to support the events. It also cost £7,646.85 in officer time —  a total cost to the local council of £12.603.78.