THOUSANDS of pounds of taxpayers’ cash has been spent on hiring a public relations guru for Luton Borough Council, despite the authority having a 20-strong communications team of its own.
The council has paid communications consultant Michele Smith a total of £167,000 over the past five years, a Freedom of Information request has shown.
In the 2009/10 financial year, Michele Smith Communications was paid more than £47,000 by the council, with one individual invoice for ‘PR cover’ coming in at more than £5,000.
Her other work paid for by the council has included PR for the Marsh Farm Community Development Trust and the now-defunct Luton Gateway quango.
The council’s own communications team costs the public purse in excess of £400,000 a year, and includes a head of communications role with a salary of up to £67,000, a senior press relations officer, press officers, an internal communications officer, plus a manager, three editors and a team of graphic designers for the council website. Asked why there was a need to employ an external consultant, a council spokesman said: “The council will from time to time employ either additional or specialist resource on an ad-hoc basis where this cannot be met by the existing establishment.”
Mrs Smith, who is married to Luton on Sunday and LD Express group editor Steve Lowe, had been an employee of the council on a five-month maternity contract in 2005, a spokesman for the council said.
In 2006, 2007 and 2008 she was paid as a freelance editor for Lutonline magazine, the council-produced newspaper delivered to thousands of homes in Luton by LSN Media, the publishers of Luton on Sunday and LD Express.
The council says that since April of last year Lutonline has been compiled in-house, and that the communications department is to be cut from 20 staff to 13 this year, with the head of communications role being ‘deleted’.
The spokesman added: “Much of the work detailed (in the Freedom of Information response) was contracted by the independent bodies Marsh Farm Community Development Trust and Luton Gateway, and funded through government. The invoices are shown on Luton Borough Council’s accounts only through its role as the accountable body.”
After contacting Mrs Smith about her work for the council, the Herald&Post received a letter from her lawyers and a statement saying: “Luton Borough Council is just one of a number of my clients. I am just one of a number of consultants who have worked for the council in recent years.
“The amount of money discussed is the result of a total of seven separate contracts, across different service areas, over a six year period.”
The council failed to provide an answer when asked whether the contracts for the work carried out by Mrs Smith had been put out to tender.