Hounslow Council chiefs have defended soaring PR costs and launched a blistering attack on the Taxpayer's Alliance.
The pressure group claimed the amount the council spends on publicity has rocketed by a staggering 2,840.4 per cent in the last decade. A study issued by the group showed the average local authority spent twice as much on publicity as it did in 1996-97 and the total cost at town halls across the country was £430million.
It claimed Hounslow Council had by far the greatest leap of any council, from £32,411 to £953,000, while Richmond Council had the third-highest rise,with 1938.8 per cent from £45,714 to £932,000.
But Hounslow Council insists the 1996/7 figures used by the TPA do not include an amendment in the following year's accounts which included staff advertising and actually stood at £393,306.
A council spokesman said: "We've identified savings of more than £50m to help freeze our share of the council tax for the third year running, but the Taxpayers' Alliance seems not to have noticed.
"Almost a quarter of this money is spend advertising for new teach-ers for the borough's schools - would the Taxpayers' Alliance prefer we didn't replace them?"
Kingston had a relatively modest rise of 62.1 per cent, from £427,108 to £692,000, and the national average spent by councils is around £1m.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TPA, said: "It is incredibly disappointing that, despite the economic downturn, local authorities are still spending half a billion pounds a year on publicity.
"In the middle of a recession, councils need to cut back on propaganda and spin doctors and deliver savings to taxpayers."
Spending on publicity is defined as 'any communication, in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or to a section of the public', which also includes job vacancies.
Hounslow Council's spokesman pointed out its spending also included recruiting social workers, benefit advisers, highways engineers, fraud investigators, registrars, planners, trading standards officers, environmental health officers, and others who worked to deliver hundreds of essential services.
"Mums also need to know when they can take their kids to the leisure centre; elderly people need to know how to get the benefits they're entitled to so they have money to see them through the week; vulnerable residents want to know where they can get help and support; and drivers appreciate knowing where there are road-works," he said.
"I wonder which of these or the hundreds of other essential communications is the Taxpayers' Alliance saying must be cut?"
