Consultants paid £18m by councils

COUNCILS in north and mid Wales have spent over £18m on external consultants over the last three years, new figures have revealed.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service shows the eight councils spent at least £18,133,621 on consultant fees between 2015 and 2018.

The total covers anyone from an outside body who advises the authorities on various matters, but the figure has been branded as “alarming” during a time when authorities are cutting their cloth to meet dwindling block grants from government.

Gwynedd spent the least at just £51,426, but, of the region’s eight authorities, Anglesey spent the most, despite being the smallest council – having forked out £9.5m since 2015.

The council’s spend, which is more than the other seven authorities combined, has been largely blamed on projects such as Wylfa Newydd – with the outlay set to be repaid by the developers.

The island’s MP described the figures as ‘alarming’at a time when islanders are facing rising council tax bills.

“The county council is operating under strict financial constraints, so it is even more concerning that it is paying out massive sums to consultants and not undertaking work in-house. It is paying out more than all the other councils in North Wales put together,” said Albert Owen.