Last updated 19:45, Thursday, 19 June 2008

A VETERAN Labour Allerdale councillor wants to know how much the authority has spent on employing consultants.

page 5 lead - have your say box please file pix Peter Bales, Joe Milburn, Margaret Jackson

Peter Bales, who represents Moorclose in Workington, has tabled a question for leader Joe Milburn, of the ruling Alliance party - made up of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents - at the next full council meeting on Wednesday at Maryport Civic Hall.

Mr Bales said hat over the last 12 months he had asked several times about the amount.

In his question, he says: “During the last year, I have had several replies, all of them different. Can I ask the leader to clarify which of the replies I have had was the correct one? If none of them were correct, can he advise me now what is the correct amount and can he provide me with a breakdown on consultant cost by project?”

Allerdale council is involved in several large projects, including the regeneration of the former Broughton Moor RNAD site into a tourist and leisure complex, renamed Derwent Forest, and plans for a sporting complex on the banks of the River Derwent in Workington, called Derwent Valley.

Many of the schemes have used consultants.

Mr Bales declined to comment this week about the figures he had been given but said it had been a question he had wanted answers to for some time. He said: “I’ve been asking this question for the last 12 months and so far no one has given me an answer I can understand.

“I would like to know why we are employing the consultants and why could we not do it ourselves .

“I first asked the question in September last year and I am still waiting for a satisfactory answer.

“I can’t even discuss who the consultants are, reveal how many there are or how much the project has cost. I can tell you it is a huge amount.”

He added that more would be said at the meeting.

Mr Bales also wants to know about the cost of deputy leader Margaret Jackson’s visit to America.

He will ask: “I asked at the last meeting about the cost. I have still not got an answer. Can you tell me how much it cost to send the deputy leader to America, who paid the bill and what was the purpose of the visit?”

He said: “She went to look at nuclear power stations and yet she has no say whatsoever in the nuclear industry and I want to know if and why Allerdale is paying for it.”

Mr Milburn was unavailable to comment yesterday,

The council will meet on Wednesday at 7pm at the Civic Hall, on Lower Church Street, Maryport.