CEREDIGION County Council has spent more than £6.1m over five years on the services of private consultants.

The news comes after the Cambrian News revealed in September that the council’s spending on consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers more than doubled — from £963,630 to £1.98m — in under eight months.

But the county council’s spending on private consultants has not been limited to PwC, new figures obtained by the Welsh Conservatives reveal.

Among the 13 out of 22 Welsh local authorities which responded to the Freedom of Information request, Ceredigion County Council was the second biggest spender on private consultancy fees in the last financial year, second only to the Isle of Anglesey. This is in stark contrast to Vale of Glamorgan Council, which spent just £875 on private consultants over the five-year period between 2011 and 2016.

The spend during 2015/16 by Ceredigion County Council represented an increase of 149 per cent on the previous financial year - the sharpest jump in this controversial type of spending of all councils in Wales.

A council spokesperson said: “Whilst Ceredigion council acknowledges that a number of consultants have been employed by the council in previous years, the council does not envisage the same level of spending on consultants in the future. In addition, there are a number of cross-border collaboration projects that the council are involved with which are resulting in significant savings and improved delivery of services.”

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