A Dorset county councillor says she is 'shocked' by a sixty two per cent increase in spending on consultants – over the course of a few months.

Spending on agency staff has also risen – by nine per cent over a three month period.

Cllr Janet Dover asked Monday's staffing committee for an explanation for the big increases although members were told that the spending on consultancy, over a longer period, is still showing a downward trend.

Said Cllr Dover “I am just shocked by the amount of this increase...in some respects I can understand the increase in spending on agency staff but not consultants, bearing in mind how expensive they are.

“I would like to see a whole chapter on what they are doing.”

Agency staff now account for 5.4per cent of the council's £120million annual wage bill, with almost 2 per cent of the total being spent on consultants.

Figures before the committee revealed that spending on agency workers from June to September was £1.7million, an increase of 9 per cent on the previous three months.

During the period June to September there was a 62 per cent rise in consultancy fees bringing the annual spend, to date, to over £1.15 million, higher than at any other period in the last four years.

But Cllr Dover was told that much of the additional spending was to buy in specialist skills the county council did not have as it prepared for its demise and the start of the new Dorset Council in April 2019.

Council leader Cllr Rebecca Knox said that apart from hiring specialists short term to offer advice and guidance some posts were being filled temporarily by agency or consultancy staff because of the demise of the county council next spring, rather than recruit new staff who might not be needed in five months time.

She said that change in local government had also resulted in temporary staff increases in some areas, such as IT, and in departments where there was increased demand, such as human resources.

Cllr Andrew Parry said specialist advice would always need to be bought in – citing the need for veterinary expertise on an ad hoc basis when trading standards officers had to deal with animal welfare issues.