BOLTON Council has defended spending more than £5.5 million on agency workers last year while making large numbers of authority staff redundant.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by Bolton UKIP has revealed that the authority forked out a total of £5,549,962 on staff from agencies across its various departments, excluding education, in 2014.

The authority has defended the amount paid, saying that agency staff are “necessary” in a number of areas.

The highest amount paid was by the environmental services department, where more than £1.7 million was paid, followed by children’s services which paid out close to £1.5 million.

More than £1.1 million was spent on agency staff by the chief executive’s department, while health and social care paid just under the million pound mark.

By far the lowest amount paid was by the department of development and regeneration, which spent just over £207,000.

The council has had to make significant savings of more than £100 million since 2010 and this year agreed measures to save a further £43 million before 2017.

So far, 1,300 permanent authority posts have been removed through staff voluntarily leaving the service.

In the financial year 2011-12 the council spent £2.8 million on agency staff, in 2010-11 the figure was £3 million, and in 2009-10 it was £4.5 million.

A spokesman said: “The use of agency staff is necessary in a number of areas.

“Firstly, in adults and children’s services, we must occasionally use agency staff, in order to fulfil our safeguarding responsibilities and keep the most vulnerable people safe from harm.

“Secondly, in areas such as environmental services, which use a large number of seasonal staff for grass cutting and parks maintenance, it is more cost-effective to use agency staff than to employ staff year-round.”

He added: “Using agency staff also allows us to cover established posts temporarily, to keep these posts open as redeployment opportunities for staff who may be displaced from other areas of the council in future and to continue trying to avoid compulsory redundancies.”

The figures have been criticised by Jeff Armstrong, who is standing for election for UKIP in Bolton South East.

He said: “The council’s workforce has been reduced over recent years, but to be spending over £5.5 million in just one year on expensive agency staff does not seem right.

“Surely, proper planning would have meant permanent staff were retained, where necessary, to avoid resorting to agency staff, who inevitably cost more.”

He added: “This is yet another example where the Labour leadership of Bolton Council has lost its way and is showing itself to be squandering the funds collected from the hard-working taxpayers of Bolton.”