Madam,

Since the Cambrian News reported that Ceredigion County Council has spent £6m on consultant fees, I have been challenged many times and I take the opportunity to provide the following explanation.

There are two categories of consultants employed by the council. The first category is where we seek professional help and development towards streamlining and improving our service delivery during a period of prolonged austerity and PricewaterhouseCoopers has made an important contribution in terms of robust challenge and the redesign of major services, with recommended planned savings of approximately £12m over the next three years. We were required to save £34m during the last four years, with more savings to come.

It has proved to be a huge challenge and so far we have met the challenge without losing key services for our citizens.

The second category is where consultants are engaged to undertake specific tasks, where the council either does not have the specialised knowledge or lacks in-house capacity in certain areas.

An example of this is the Borth Coastal Defence Scheme which cost £18m, where consultants were employed to design, model and oversee the construction of the scheme.

Consultant costs for the scheme were in the region of £1m and, whilst the fees were paid through the Ceredigion accounts ledger, the actual cost of the scheme was 100 per cent grant-funded by the Welsh Government, which reimbursed the £1m to the council.

There are other examples, such as the Llandysul Link Road, designed by Capita; also waste collection modelling by Eunomia, as directed by Welsh Government, where the consultant fees were paid by the council who were in turn reimbursed by the Welsh Government.

I accept some will still be sceptical about the use of consultants but in certain circumstances they are needed to further the council’s work.

Yours etc,

Cllr Ray Quant, Deputy Leader, Ceredigion County Council.

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