THE leader of Cumbria County Council says he will make 'no apology' for the authority hiring a PR guru on £700 per day while 1800 staff are facing redundancy.

Labour leader Stewart Young, whose party shares control of the council with the Liberal Democrats, backed the decision to employ the Midlands based Mark Fletcher-Brown, who describes himself as a 'dynamic communications and reputation specialist'.

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Mr Brown is being paid £2100 for three days of work a week to help the county council's 10-strong communications team find thousands of pounds of savings from its budget as well as helping explain its budget issues to the Cumbrian public and media.

But it has led to opposition claims that the council is trying to 'spin' its position to avoid bad headlines.

At the first full council meeting since Mr Fletcher-Brown's appointment, opposition Tory leader Cllr James Airey, of Urswick, asked Cllr Young if he agreed with the appointment when the council has to lay-off staff and cut budgets.

Cllr Airey asked: "Do you think paying a spin doctor £700-a-day to hide your bad news is good value for money for the tax payers of Cumbria?"

Cllr Young, the Labour member for Upperby, Carlisle, said that Mr Fletcher-Brown had replaced its former head of media, Mark Graham, who had left the authority for a health comms role.

Cllr Young explained that as a result, the department had achieved a saving during the year and that Mr Fletcher-Brown had been appointed at no extra cost to the authority.

He also told the meeting in County Hall, Kendal, that Mr Graham's post would not exist next year.

Cllr Young said savings of £300k had already been found in the council's comms department and Mr Fletcher-Brown is advising them.

Cllr Young said: "Collectively we have failed to get the message across about the scale and severity of the cuts and we have a duty to get that message across. I make no apology for trying to get our message across because it's an important message for the people of Cumbria."

But Cllr Airey replied: "Can you confirm you think £700-a-day is good value for money for the Cumbrian taxpayer?"

Cllr Young, sitting down, said: "I think I've already answered that question."