TORBAY Council's restructuring bid has cost almost £1million so far — with more than £400,000 spent on consultants and £500,000 on redundancy payments for senior officers.

The reshaping project, which aims to save the council up to £15million over three years, started in 2007.

The figures were revealed in a Freedom of Information request which showed the council doubled its payments to consultants last year, paying out £356,452 to outside agencies.

This includes more than £300,000 last year spent on consultants Grant Thornton who are dealing with the council's 're-shaping'. This was on top of more than £120,000 paid out to Grant Thornton in 2007/8.

It means over the past three years the total spent on all consultants by the council is £619,000.

The data shows the figures spent on consultants had shot up from £124,451 in 2006/7, and £138,106 in 2007/08.

Deputy mayor Chris Lewis, a Conservative councillor, said Torbay had little choice but to use consultants.

"My attitude is that we are a small council, unlike Devon County Council who have teams of people who can advise and develop reports," he said.

"Therefore if we need details to get Government funding we have to spend to accumulate, and that's what we are doing.

"We do not want to take on full-time staff so we turn to consultants when they are needed."

Torbay Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders said: "It's an awful lot of money. It used to be the case the council had professional officers to offer advice."

He said Torbay should be looking at 'more imaginative permanent solutions' in partnership with other authorities.

"Every reorganisation is supposed to save money but rarely does," he said.

The amount paid in 2008/9 included £303,898 to Grant Thornton for work on the council's 'transformation agenda'. Grant Thornton also received £121,453 in 2007/8.

The 'transformation' aims for the council to take on the role of commissioning services and appointing commissioners rather than service directors.

Last year the council made four of its top officers redundant and gave early retirement to another at a cost of more than £500,000 while appointing new commissioners. Chief executive Elizabeth Raikes and four commissioners cost taxpayers more than £566,000 in 2008/9, which is set to rise to almost £700,000 next year.

Torbay TUC made the Freedom of Information request on the figures spent on consultants.

Branch spokesman Paul Raybould said: "Our executive finds the amount spent on outside consultants a vulgar amount of money to spend on non-council staff for the work undertaken to provide advice."

Independent councillor Julien Parrott, former scrutiny chairman, said he would reserve judgement on the spending on Grant Thornton until the reshaping is completed.

"It depends on the outcome," he said. "We need to see the cashable savings made, as the council has promised. These must be savings which can be spent on services or on reducing council tax at a time when people are struggling."

Torbay Lib Dem group leader Cllr Steve Darling said: "It's perverse that Cabinet was talking about bringing the parking services contract back in house at the same time we are paying consultants for advice on putting services out to contract."

Last year the council also paid £8,613 to I&DEA to review the council's scrutiny function, £24,681 to 4PS to review the progress of the joint venture partnership with a works and waste company, for example for litter bin collections. The council paid Niki Pain £9,912 for support and advice regarding housing needs, and G4S Policing Solutions for advice on environmental crime such as fly tipping.

Mr Raybould said: "When I was asked by the Torbay TUC to put in these questions we never imagined the figures would be so high. The council is always saying it is short of money. Surely this £600,000 could have been better spent on frontline services such as help for elderly people and on children's services.

"If you are a small unitary authority with ambitious regeneration plans like the Mayoral Vision, isn't it better to employ one or two extra people," he said.

Stuart Fegan, South West senior organiser of the GMB union, said they considered the figures 'exhorbitant'.

"They are spending taxpayers' money to potentially take public sector work into the private sector. I am sure the council says it will save money, but our concern is that what they are talking about is reducing facilities and services to taxpayers and when they talk about cutting costs it is at the expense of the workforce employed by the council."

A council spokesman responded to the TUC saying: "The council's priority is to ensure value for money is achieved for all areas of expenditure. All managers are mindful the council has limited financial resources and careful consideration is taken before consultants are employed to provide advice and support to the council.

"As a small unitary authority it is inevitable that on some occasions we will need to go outside the council to seek expert advice.

"In all cases the use of professional services or consultants are more cost effective than employing a full-time member of staff for specific short-term projects. An example of where the use of professional services and consultants was vital was when putting together a funding bid for Torre Abbey and Brixham regeneration without which we would not have secured millions of pounds of external funding.

"The money spent supporting the transformation programme will result in a more fit, flexible and efficient council which will benefit all residents. With that in mind it is often inevitable that when we are successful in our applications for external funding the need for external professionals increases to take major projects forward."