Wirral Council's spending on external consultants

I first submitted an Freedom of Information request on November 10 last year. The same email was submitted to all Merseyside authorities.

Alas, I don't have the email correspondence from Wirral Council, but my recollection is that they, like several other authorities, said it was too difficult to analyse council accounts to answer the question.

Now they have thanks to a very useful website. And it's rather a lot of money.

According to the spreadsheet released by the authority in the 12 months to September 2009, £592,020 was spent on external consultants.

A key quote from Cllr Green was: "This list says they spent around £56,000 on consultants to prepare an outline business case for parks maintenance contract. We can't get money to improve the parks, but they can spend £56,000 on consultants. This beggars belief.

"This council has 12,000 employees and it's amazing there is not the expertise within the authority without spending hundreds of thousands on external consultants."

From the council's point of view, a spokeswoman said: "Consultants are generally engaged because they have expertise and a subject knowledge which is not available in- house. It is also often more cost effective than using in- house staff.

"We are confident our use of consultants represents a good use of tax payers' money."

You can click on that link, above to download the spreadsheet, but FYI, I have copied the spreadsheet info below:

Consultants twelve months spend to September 2009

Treasury management 8,950

Redevelopment of New Brighton 92,500

Support for schools Private Finance Initiative 2,460

Highways and engineering services procurement exercise 74,919

Assistance with delivery of the regeneration projects at Fiveways,
Church Rd and the North End 14,280

Preparation of the evidence base for the Local
Development Framework, including Biodiversity audit and Core
Strategy Development Plan 40,493

Aspire project - mentoring for student learners 23,610

Quantity Surveying audit on the Lovell proposal to redevelop

Rock Ferry 2,435

Delivery of a strategic plan for Cultural and Leisure services
4,319

Improvement Proposals To Hoylake And Meols Promenade
4,637

Advice on the development of the neighbourhood renewal strategy 2,529

Hoylake golf resort 10,236

The provision of Foundation Learning evaluation reports 5,600

Software development for lifelong learning 9,920

External Adult Training courses 7,553

Youth offending service development 18,600

Development and piloting of Partnership Quality Assurance
Framework for Children and Yopung Peoples Service 5,090

Completion of conservation management plan and condition survey 3,935

Preparation of outline business case re tendering contract for
parks maintenance 56,790

Feasibility Study - Merseyside Landlord Accreditation 29,980

Private housing stock condition survey 4,010

Strategic Housing Market Assessment update 12,000

Strategic Leisure review 3,250

Design consultancy in respect of school travel plans 67,081

Coast Protection Studies 2,330

Waste Disposal / Street Cleansing 15,555

Conservation Area Appraisals 4,060

Wirral Retail Strategy 19,630

Biodiversity Audit, Local Sites Selection Criteria and Guidelines 13,478

Employment Land Study 13,611

Investment Strategy 9,700

Regeneration Consultancy 8,479