AN AGENCY and consultancy bill of £6.5 million for county hall has been slammed as ‘appalling’ by a union official. Information obtained by the Dorset Echo under the Freedom of Information Act outlines an increase of more than £2million in consultancy and agency staff since 2003. This comes at a time when at least 300 jobs at county hall could be axed to save money.

Last year the county council spent £3,935,011 on agency staff and a further 2,563,722 on consultancy fees.

Gary Pattison, branch secretary for GMB at county hall, described the costs as appalling but said he was not surprised.

He fears that the real number of council employees affected by cost saving measures could be as high as 800.

He said: “When members of this council are facing cuts or down-grading, why is it that the council is spending so much money on services that our members are clearly capable of delivering?

“It is absolutely appalling that so much money has been passed on to the private sector and consultants.”

The authority has launched a three-year efficiency programme – ‘Fit for the Future’ – in order to make savings of nearly £28 million by 2011.

Council chiefs say that 300 posts will be lost through voluntary redundancies, redeployment and reorganisation.

The council’s human resources department has been targeted for the greatest losses, with staff cuts planned by October.

A commitment to redeploy at least 60 per cent of council workers facing compulsory redundancy is included the plans.

Mr Pattison said that staff are unsure what jobs will be lost and added: “There has been a complete collapse of morale here.”

As a union representative Mr Pattison visited Gloucester County Council which have undergone a cost cutting process similar to Fit for the Future and said that he feared the 800 job losses there could be mirrored in Dorset. He added that despite numerous attempts the union is unable to get a realistic idea of job losses from the county council.

County councillor Mike Byatt said that using agency staff is an inefficient way for the council to manage their budget. He added: “It’s a large amount of money and we have to justify as a council where we are spending so much money and spending this much on private firms.

“It indicates to me that there is no real control over the budget.”

A council spokesman said: “In late 2007 we started Fit for the Future – a three-year efficiency programme to help us provide better value for money and become more customer-focused.

“We are investing £16.4 million over the three years of the programme – however, by the end of the programme we will be taking at least £8.6 million a year off the amount that we need to spend.

“The final year’s figures include the cost of using consultants to develop the Fit for the Future programme.

“After three years the programme will generate savings significantly over and beyond the overall programme investment and in this context the spending on consultants is relatively small.”