Cost-cutting Watford Borough Council has paid a consultant more than £100,000 – to tell it how to save money.

The council, which has seen the value of its government grant slashed, continues to identify efficiency savings, including cuts to services and redundancies.

Spending figures reveal that it has payed fees of more than £8,500 a month to public sector consultants Anna Klonowski Associates.

The council confirmed this afternoon that it has been employing a consultant from the company since July 2010 to “deliver further efficiency savings.” The contract, which runs until September 30 this year, will cost taxpayers a total of £97,875 plus VAT.

Town hall bosses stress that the contract has already provided value for money and cite a number of cost-cutting examples.

Labour councillor Nigel Bell, however, says the contract raises wider questions about the relationship between local authorities and consultants.

He said: “I don’t think the people who have lost their jobs will be happy about this – that highly paid consultants have been brought in to make these decisions.

“The Labour group is already asking about how much has been spent on consultants’ fees in the last year because it is something that all councils need to watch.

“We know that people often leave local authorities to make money in consultancy, but when there have been so many cut backs it doesn’t look good.”

A council spokesman said: “Watford is already a lean council. We were recognised by the government as having made the biggest efficiency savings of any district council in England. We are currently making £5million of further savings and his work helps us reduce costs and save council tax-payers money.

Examples cited include £100,000 in procurement savings, £50,000 from a housing review and other savings in printing, planning, parking and other areas.

The spokesman added: “It makes financial sense for us to employ a consultant for a short period of time for very focused specialist work, rather than employing someone permanently and having the associated long term costs.”