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Council under fire over £2m bill
BLACKPOOL Council today came under fire for splashing out more than £2m on private consultants.
And up to 250,000 of that was spent on bringing in outsiders to work out how much to pay the authority's 8,000 staff.
The findings have been unearthed by the council's own watchdog committee after growing discontent about the thorny issue of private sector consultants working in the public sector.
An audit committee report showed how in 2007/08, the latest figures available, the council spent:
- 2,163,000 on companies and experts to advise on issues including street lighting, legal advice, and training.
- Almost 1.5m was spent on projects costing more than 50,000, which included a 250,000 pay-out in the HR department. This was divided among advisers brought in to offer help with the council pay review, and experts giving parenting classes.
- 70,000 was spent on a service "redesign" at the Customer First centre, on Corporation Street, in which consultants gave telephone training.
Matthew Elliot, chief executive of campaign group the Taxpayers' Alliance, today stormed: "It's scandalous taxpayers are paying for council staff and then consultants on top of this.
"It's also unnecessary as the local authority should recruit staff that have the relevant skills in the first place, so that extra money doesn't need to be spent on getting outside advice.
"Cutting the use of management consultants in half would save hundreds of thousands of pounds. Councils' use of them should be eliminated completely."
FOR THE FULL STORY SEE MONDAY'S GAZETTE.
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Weather for Chorley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: West
