MP slams Cumbria County Council for wasting public money

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has today slammed the Tory-led Cumbria County Council (CCC) for wasting public money by hiring private consultants, many of whom make a profit out of local government work.

After requesting information from the council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Tim has heavily criticised them for spending more than £2.2million on consultancy fees in the period between April and October 2010.

The majority of the money, much of it spent on bureaucracy, goes to private consultancy firms such as Capita Resourcing Limited, rather than directly benefiting the people of South Lakeland.

This morning, Tim said; "It's frankly ludicrous that the county council are squandering millions of pounds on such unnecessary services and wasting taxpayers money is this way. I have called on them to reduce their dependency on consultancy firms so that more of the taxpayer's money is spent on local services which will benefit them directly."