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Council spends £500,000 in bid to save money
Lancashire County Council chiefs are to spend up to £500,000 hiring new managers – to show them how to save money.
Bosses want to recruit seven experts to oversee a multi-million pound cost-cutting scheme at the council.
Opposition politicians have criticised the appointments, at a time when the council is considering making cuts to areas such as bus subsidies and raising council tax by 2.95% – an average rise of 25 a house.
Coun Geoff Driver, Conservative finance spokesman, said: "To me, it's typical of the way the county council works. It's like going back in a time warp.
"Whenever they want to do something new, they immediately employ someone to do it."
Coun David Whipp, Liberal Democrat leader, said: "It's indicative of the slack way in which the administration runs the show.
"There are hundreds of highly-paid managers within the county council. If they are not able to do that work within the existing budget, it's a bit of a rum do."
The appointments are part of budget plans which should see an extra 10m for roads.
The plans will also see some bus routes axed and park-and-ride services losing subsidies to save 330,000.
And 13 human resources jobs are expected to go under merger plans.
Aiden Turner-Bishop, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "If only councillors rode on buses they might come up with more sensible priorities. Instead they are spending on consultants."
Anne Brown, cabinet member for resources and performance, defended the new appointments, saying the Lancashire Efficiency Initiative should save taxpayers more than 9m this year.
She said: "Our aim has been to maintain our valued services by delivering them more efficiently.
"We now have over 30 projects working to increase our efficiency and the problem is co-ordinating them.
"It's about maximising our value for money and getting someone to oversee them. We need to be looking for people with expertise of a particular sort that we don't have in enormous amounts within the organisation."
She added some jobs may be filled by internal candidates and the full 500,000, which will also cover set-up costs, might not be spent.
Mrs Brown said: "We know 500,000 is a lot of money but we are looking to save 10m every year."
Fylde's Conservative MP Michael Jack said: "It raises a question as to whether this is the best use of public funds."
Local government minister John Healey last week named Lancashire County Council in a top 10 list of local authorities who would gain the most from belt-tightening.
The budget proposals will be discussed at a council meeting on February 14.
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 3 C
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