Liberal Democrat councillors on Herts County Council were astonished to be asked to agree the appointment of a ‘procurement advisor’ at a meeting today – over two years into a major programme to cut costs.

HCC spends around £800m per year on contracts and Lib Dems have long argued the need for better value and an end to automatic price increases by contractors. Yet only now is an expert on buying actually coming in.

‘The ink is already drying on new highways contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, yet after the event the Tories want to get someone on board to advise on such contracts. It really is a case of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted,’ said Liberal Democrat finance spokesperson councillor Malcolm Cowan.

He added: ‘It is not just the price on the contracts, there is an urgent need to monitor the performance of these companies’ Malcolm added; ‘We have long believed many of them get away with sub-standard performance which is poor value for money.’