SWINDON Council is preparing to spend £50k on management consultants to review its Libraries, leisure, culture and parks services.

A document seen by the Adver shows that the council is inviting companies to bid for a contract to review the services.

The Adver understands that although the contract has been out for tender at least a week, staff were only informed about the proposals yesterday morning.

Campaigners have slammed the council for what they see as a waste of public funds.

The move comes just over a year after the council commissioned a £10k review into its libraries.

That review, which was carried out in July 2009, cost the council about £2k and the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council another £8k.

And last week the council announced it was considering a raft of cuts in services, including shaving £6k off this year’s museums budget and another £12k next year.

The tender document states that the consultants should see how well the council’s services are performing compared with other councils and what other ‘delivery options’ there might be.

The review will also look at the state of the council’s buildings housing those services and ‘human resource implications’, or redundancies.

Libraries campaigner Shirley Burnham said: “What is astonishing is spending taxpayers’ money on yet more consultants, while essential services to its residents are being squeezed until the pips fall out of them.

“The council must admit, by doing this, that it has no confidence in its own abilities to organise the provision of services – something that the taxpayer expects and pays them to do. Why are senior officers paid large salaries if they are incapable of doing their jobs?”

She also wondered whether the council would still accept the consultancy even if it did not agree with the findings.

And she pointed out that libraries could not be privatised or the service dismantled as it was against the Libraries Act, 1964.

Labour group leader, Coun Derique Montaut, described the decision as ‘a real kick in the teeth’ for the 1,000 council employees set to lose their jobs and the vulnerable people of Swindon, who rely on services funded by the council.

“This is just another example of where the council says one thing and does another,” he said. “They say ‘we’re all in this together’ but in practice it’s the poor and vulnerable who are being hit the most, while Swindon’s Tories hire out consultants to do the job they should be doing.

“Swindon Borough Council simply cannot afford to have this level of waste, while people’s lives and livelihoods are on the line.

“If Labour were in administration in Swindon our policy towards libraries and leisure would be based on our values of equality and community.

“It appears that the Tories’ policy towards libraries and leisure is based on expensive consultancy fees and options appraisals”

But Coun Fionuala Foley, the council’s cabinet member for leisure and corporate services, said: “We want to protect and enhance our leisure, libraries, culture and parks services and we are commissioning specialist consultants to help us do this.

“The consultants will be required to research the best way to deliver these services and to come up with a number of options, which will help the council make the right decision to achieve significant efficiency savings in the future.

“We will be asking the successful consultancy to work closely with key stakeholders, including residents, to ensure their views are sought and we have briefed staff on the options appraisal.”