A MASSIVE £8.5 million has been spent by Redbridge Council on management consultants since the Conservatives took office in 2002.

And now councillors want to know exactly what they have been getting for taxpayers' money over the last four years.

At a meeting of the full council it was agreed that the cabinet should undertake a review of expenditure after it was revealed that £8,498,000 had been spent on consultancy fees since 2002, with a whooping £3 million shelled out since April last year.

In September 2005, there was uproar across the borough when it was discovered the council had spent £90,000 on design and consultancy fees to come up with a leafy new logo for Redbridge.

Days after Redbridge's rebranding was launched it was discovered that a teenager had created a remarkably similiar image for the Woodford Green Amenity Group 30 years ago, for the reward of a £5 book token.

Now consultants are also set to pocket a further £1.3 million in fees as part of a plan to develop a new swimming pool in Seven Kings.

Labour councillor Bob Littlewood, who proposed the cash check, said: "Sometimes we tend to get passionately obsessed with smaller items and don't look at the big money.

"It's a very major issue and I think the cabinet members should really concentrate their minds on this because, as consultants are taken on, they will have to take responsibility for seeing that things are done properly."

Cabinet member for culture, sport, and community learning, Cllr Mark Aaron, who is the man behind the swimming pool, dismissed Cllr Littlewood's fears.

He said: "He would say that because we're coming up to an election. We've got to spend money on consultants because we need to consult. All this money is not wasted because if we go ahead, which I'm sure we will, it will just come out of the total costs."

Cllr Littlewood questioned whether the project would, in fact, go ahead, saying: "I believe the Tories have lost confidence in the scheme which is why it is not in the budget for the next three years. If there's no end scheme we shouldn't employ consultants."

In the last year, £984,000 was spent by the council's building services department on consultants, £668,000 by housing, and £704,000 by regeneration and Cllr Aaron defended the use of money on jobs which, in the past he said would have been done by council officers. Defending the proposed £1.3 million consultancy project Cllr Powell said: "We will be using the council officers for certain aspects but how many swimming pools have they had in the last 100 years? Four? You're looking at a few specialists to find out what's going on in the market."