Waltham Forest Guardian: Council remains silent over consultants cost

By Carl Brown

The council has still not explained why it has had seven interim consultants filling senior positions for months.

Last week it was revealed that the authority is spending about £400,000 a year extra on consultants than it would be if it employed permanent staff directly.

The figure assumes full time-work and some of them have been working as interims for more than a year.

Not all of the consultants are working full time.

The Taxpayers' Alliance, the UNISON union and the leader of the Conservative group on the council Matt Davis have all voiced concerns about the amount of money the authority is spending on consultants.

On November 8, the Guardian asked the council why the interims have been in place for so long and whether the authority is struggling to fill senior positions.

The newspaper also asked which agencies the interims are working for and who is responsible if a mistake is made, the consultancy or the individual.

Two weeks after we made the original enquiry and despite repeated requests, the authority has still to respond to the Guardian's questions.

A spokesman said that the authoirty's cabinet member for service modernisation John Macklin would send us a letter answering our questions, but it has yet to arrive.