A LOCAL authority has spent more than £230,000 contr -acting consultants to carry out independent pro -jects last year.

East Lindsey District Council spent a total of £231,401 on consultant fees in 2009/10 - nearly three times as much as what was spent in 2008/09 when the total consultant fees came to £84,704.

More than £200,000 of the fees were for planning and economic development research.

The biggest fee was £55,013 to the University of Warwick, which included a £25,000 contribution from Lincolnshire County Council, for an independent assessment into the current learning provision and future employment demand in East Lindsey.

Some consultancy work related to planning applications with £10,230 spent on consultants Martin Tonks who assessed the impact of a new Tesco store in Tattershall and a new Sainsbury's in Louth. The assessment by Chase and Partners for advice on the optimum requirements for a livestock market in Louth cost £8,524. Two separate consultant projects were commissioned in relation to the planning application for a windfarm at Baumber. The combined cost was £17,168.

More than £5,000 was also spent on an evaluation of Horncastle Town Hall's business plan.

The authority had gone out to tender for quotations before appointing the consultants.

The annual report of the fees was discussed by East Lindsey's overview committee on Wednesday where they questioned the need of such work. Councillor Jim Swanson said he felt 'uncomfortable' that £14,950 had been spent on Foundation for Local Food in a seven month project to develop a local food strategy for East Lindsey.

Overview chairman Councillor Fiona Martin said: "We are spending thousands of pounds on consultants for planning applications which I imagine is more money than we are getting from the planning fee. As budgets get tighter there is a need for a lot of consideration before we spend big sums of money on consultants."

The overview committee will present their comments to a future meeting of the Executive Board.

A spokesman from East Lindsey said: "Like many councils, East Lindsey District Council only uses consultants when it needs independent advice for planning appeals for example, or if it doesn't have the skills or capacity in-house to deliver a particular piece of essential work.

When outside support is used, it is for the least time possible to ensure costs are kept to a minimum."