Council's £1,000-a-day car hire branded 'disgrace' as review demanded
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE cost of car hire for Highland Council workers is to be scrutinised after a councillor branded the £30,000-a-month bill “a disgrace”.
At a meeting of the full council in Inverness yesterday, Glynis Sinclair, the opposition Scottish National Party member for Culloden and Ardersier, demanded that the local authority’s budget leader Bill Fernie look into the spend when he is searching for savings in February to balance the council’s books.
Highland Council spends around £1,000 a day, or £30,000 a month, on hire cars for its workers.
The council spent £363,063 on hired cars, including £120,138 on fuel costs for the last financial year.
The local authority defended the costs, saying the council covered the largest local authority area in Scotland.
But councillor Sinclair said she was stunned to see the total cost the council spent on hire cars.
Councillor Fernie said he would turn his attention to the issue but stressed that car hire was a necessity rather than a luxury for the council.
It was also pointed out that the local authority employs more than 10,000 people across a large area, many of whom require transportation as part of their work.
The cost of agency workers was also criticised by SNP councillor Maxine Smith, who called for a “root and branch review”.
As revealed in toay's Ross-shire Journal, the council spent £2,582,339 hiring temporary staff from employment agencies, often to plug temporary vacancies.
The total was described by one councillor as “extortionate” at a time the authority was looking for £21 million in savings.
But resources committee chairman Bill Fernie believed there was no alternative to temporary workers because new permanent staff could not being employed at a time when future staff levels were uncertain.
“I think there’s maybe a tendency for some people to portray this as we are somehow wasting money,” he said.
“But if you ask our directors, they will say that [hiring temporary staff] is the shortest way to fill vacancies.
“Every year for the last three or four years the council has had to reduce its staff numbers.”
The council confirmed it employed agency staff across all departments.
“Reasons will include short term absence and to maintain service delivery e.g. in refuse collection and social care, to bring in specialist resources which the council doesn’t have access to or at times to run short term projects,” a spokeswoman explained.
“It is important that the council only employs agency staff when absolutely necessary and officers are currently looking at the level of spend to reduce this in future years in order to meet our budget targets.
“The council continues to employ staff in permanent and temporary posts where they are required.”
Share your views by emailing editor@rsjournal.co.uk
