Consultancy fees cost Council £841,674

The amount spent has steadily increased year on year from 194,535 in 2006-2007 and 254,609 in 2007-2008 to a hefty 392,530 last year.

Province-wide, local authorities spent a total of 9.1 million on consultants’ fees last year, an increase of some 2.5million over the past three years.

The figures were released by Environment Minister Edwin Poots in response to an Assembly question from SDLP MLA for Upper Bann, Dolores Kelly.

Ms Kelly described the expenditure as “pretty startling”, and added: “There has to be a rethink here by councils on how they spend ratepayers’ money and where the best value for money can be found.

“There are a lot of highly-paid officers and civil servants employed by our councils and yet still large amounts of public money are being filtered into the coffers of consultancy agencies.

“I’m not saying there is no need for consultants, they can provide an area of expertise and guidance for our councils, but there is also an air of inevitability surrounding consultants and the value for money they deliver.

“We are living in constrained times and we have the right to robustly ask stringent questions about the way public money is spent.”

Ms Kelly said: “The Review of Public Administration will not happen. So we must get on with the job at hand and make local government the most efficient it can be.

“Local government funding will feel a massive pinch from a reduction in the block grant and there is a suggestion jobs may be under threat.

The figures show that Belfast city council forked out the most for consultants during the 2008/2009 financial year - paying 3,367,630.

The only other council to spend over 1 million on consultants last year was Newtownabbey, who paid 1,052,810, while Castlereagh Borough Council has the smallest bill for consultants across the three years, spending nothing in 2006/2007, 34,859 in 2007/2008, and decreasing its bill to 13,056 in 2008/2009.