Cash-strapped county council spends millions on consultants (Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats)

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats <info@cambslibdems.org.uk>

Cash-strapped county council spends millions on consultants

March 10, 2010 10:44 AM

Belinda Brooks-Gordon

County council chiefs spent a whopping £8.8 million to buy in expertise from outside last year.

The giant bill for consultants has been revealed as Cambridgeshire County Council is facing its worst cash crisis since the Second World War.

The cash-strapped council is shedding 300 jobs and needs to save almost £100 million over the next five years.

It has agreed to slice £3.8 million over the next year from adult social care which provides support for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill. The move is expected to rob many elderly of their independence because they won't get enough support to stay in their own homes.

The Tory administration has also agreed cuts in spending for children and young people and is taking £1.1 million away from the libraries' budget.

Despite the massive deficit, the county council paid for expensive consultants including almost £5 million for work on the abandoned Transport Innovation Fund - much of which it maintains will be paid back by the government.

County Councillor for Cambridge, Belinda Brooks-Gordon believes many of the millions could have been better spent for the direct benefit of county residents.

She said: "It is worrying that the county council has to spend so much of taxpayers' money buying in expertise from outside when it is facing such a massive spending crisis.

"I accept that it is necessary on occasion to seek help from experts in a particular field; but I am not convinced this level of spending on consultants can be completely justified at a time when the county council is facing such a massive deficit.

"The council is forced to make cuts in vital services and yet there is this massive bill for expensive consultants. The priorities are all wrong."

With almost an extra £9 million to spare Cambridgeshire County Council could have bought:

• a new school to solve part of the looming crisis in primary school places which leaves children facing lessons in mobile classrooms;

• paid for the gritting of cycleways and pavements to protect residents in icy conditions;

• better rural bus services and real time information at all bus stops;

• support for vulnerable people to allow them to stay in their own homes.

The Lib Dems put forward an alternative budget which would save £20 million over the next two years for priority services including repairs to roads and pavements, public transport, children and young people and adult social care, but it was rejected.