Northamptonshire Liberal Democrats have uncovered figures that show that Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council spent £22.43m of tax-payers money on consultants and temporary staff in 2009/10.
Cllr Brendan Glynane, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at County Hall said “The Conservative Leader claimed he would get a grip on this, but these figures tell the truth. Once again the Conservatives have shown that they can’t be trusted with your money. It is simply astonishing that the Conservatives have been handing out public money to consultants on this scale.”
“Everybody knows that times are tough, and that public spending will have to be scaled back after Labour left the country with no money. But the task at Northamptonshire will be that much harder if the Conservatives insist on wasting so much cash on consultants. The Conservatives need to stop this wasteful spending so that we can protect services for the most vulnerable.”
Scott Collins, Parliamentary Spokesperson for South Northants Commented “It would be unreasonable to expect councils to operate without some temporary staff or the knowledge of consultants, and that is really not the issue. The real issue is the size of the cost for these services. £22.43 million is an incredible amount to spend whilst the council has made no discernable improvements in service and whilst the Conservative administration is slashing funding for those least able to object, the most vulnerable in society, the disabled, elderly and young people. Its a disgrace!”
The figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that in 2009/10:
£8.53m was spent on agency staff
£7.9m was spent on technical advisors
£5.3m was spent on consultancy
£700k was spent on legal advisors
Covered in the Northants Evening Telegraph and Northampton Chronicle:
http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/County-council-cuts-4127-people39s.6590328.jp
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