Carlisle council consultant daily salary 'jaw dropping'

Carlisle City Council said the consultants would help it save money on the leisure services contract

Consultants being hired by a council will earn 12 times as much as someone working under the contract they are managing.

Carlisle City Council plans to spend of £125,000 on "specialist support" in retendering its leisure services contract.

Conservative member Gareth Ellis said the £850 two consultants would each be paid a day each was "jaw dropping".

The council said the advisors were "highly specialised and experienced".

It said the aim was to save millions of pounds on new contracts.

'Lack of transparency'

The £850 fee is 12 times the daily rate a fitness instructor in one of the city's leisure centres could earn.

A third consultant will be paid £450 per day, Mr Ellis said.

There had been a "total lack of transparency" with backbenchers "kept out of the loop" about the exact payments planned, he said.

The decision was halted last week ahead of a scrutiny panel review.

The Labour-run council could not provide information about the daily rate during the meeting and, once it ended, the panel "lost the capacity" to require the executive to rethink the decision, Mr Ellis said.

"If we'd been given those day rates in the meeting the decision might have been different," he said.

The council said the Local Government Association had funded some initial consultancy.

"The aim of the exercise is to deliver significant investment in sports facilities as well as millions of pounds of savings to the council over the life of any new contract," a spokesperson said.

The council is looking to make savings of £1.2m this year and more than £4m over the next four years, out of an annual budget of £13m.

The current leisure services contract is held by Carlisle Leisure - which has merged with Greenwich Leisure (GLL) - and is due to expire in November 2017.