A CASH-STRAPPED council has been labelled "wasteful" after paying a firm of headhunters thousands of pounds of public money to advertise a highly-paid job.

Darlington Borough Council has advertised for a director of children and adult services, a senior post with a salary of between £97,000 and £115,725 on offer for the successful candidate.

The Northern Echo has learnt, following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, that town hall chiefs have shelled out more than £14,000 advertising the role via recruitment consultants Gatenby Sanderson.

It has been revealed that the total fee agreed for Gatenby Sanderson's role in the recruitment process was £9,600 plus VAT, the first half of which has already been invoiced.

In respect of the remaining 50 per cent, 30 per cent will be invoiced when the recruitment process is handed over to the council and 20 per cent will be invoiced on appointment.

There was another invoice of £4,619 plus VAT for advertising costs – this is payable to Gatenby Sanderson, but covers the cost of advertising the job in local authority industry publication The Municipal Journal.

The council defended the expenditure, saying it was needed in order to attract the best candidate.

Council chiefs have been faced with dwindling resources in recent years, with tens of millions of pounds cut from the budget as a result of spending cuts imposed by the previous coalition Government.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, which campaigns for an end to excessive public sector spending, said: "When we're trying to make necessary savings everywhere across government, we have to rein in wasteful spending like this.

"It's right that the council finds the best person for the job, but hiring in costly headhunters is just unnecessary."

A council spokeswoman said: "In order to attract candidates of the highest calibre, it was necessary to incur costs with an external recruitment agency to ensure that we attract people with the skills, knowledge and experience to apply for this senior post and to ensure that it was advertised in an appropriate professional journal.

“There is a great deal of demand nationally for highly experienced and motivated individuals to work in this kind of demanding role and it is important that we use all avenues to make sure that potential candidates are aware of this opportunity.”