A TORY council has slammed the government's hefty budget cuts after the News discovered it is paying extortionate rates for interim staff in order to avoid redundancy settlements.

Wokingham Borough Council is undergoing a review, which could lead to numerous positions in the council becoming redundant in the future. Conservative councillors claim it is Central Government cuts which have forced the issue.

Among the top paid roles is the council's human resources manager, who costs the authority a whooping £891.13 per day. The head of school improvements costs £727.46 per day while the interim head of highways costs £600 per day, and has been in the role for more than 10 months.

If the head of HR works five days a week for a year, it would cost WBC £231,693.80.

Opposition member Clive Jones blasted the amount of money being spent on interim staff, suggesting the Liberal Democrat party would have done things differently.

"This is a lot of money," he said.

"If you take the head of highways for instance, the council knows it is going to need a head of highways, so why are they paying for an interim?

"We would take on staff permanently and they may still have had to apply for their roles in the future or we would take them on knowing their position would be filled."

Frontbench councillors claim the council has little option but to recruit interim staff because roles could change in the coming years. Council chiefs do not want to pay redundancy pages to certain positions if the staff are laid off.

The council's leader also conceded their is a staffing crisis in certain departments.

Speaking about the figures, gathered through a Freedom of Information Request, Councillor Anthony Pollock, executive member for economic development and finance, said: “Despite responding well to austerity and funding cuts from central government in recent years, Wokingham Borough still needs to save £19million by March 2020.

"Our far reaching 21st Century Council programme will make a significant contribution to our three year savings plan and we will become a leaner, more efficient council costing significantly less to run.

Anthony Pollock blamed central government cuts "It’s important not to recruit permanently to roles if we are unsure they will continue in the future following our reorganisation.

"We commission through national frameworks, and we negotiate keen rates, but the cost of some of these posts, filling senior roles, is high. The same situation applies to other authorities; and often we have difficulty in recruiting to some of these vital roles and have little choice but to appoint interims."

Bracknell News:

The interim head of finance for people's services costs £550 per day while the children's team manager costs £570.71 per shift.

Cllr Keith Baker, leader of WBC, admitted the council is facing a staffing crisis, particularly in it's social care department, and the authority is desperate to find new workers.

He added: "If you take social care, be it adult or children, there is a huge shortage of staff out there.

"It's not political."

"Some councils are giving out golden hellos. It's to recruit staff so if they come along and someone else is trying to recruit them you might give them a golden hello of £1,000.

"I don't know if Wokingham does that or not."