Harrow Council has come under fire for spending more than £6 million on consultants and interim staff during the last financial year.

Opposition councillors have blasted the Labour administration for its "wasteful spending" and said cuts should have been made here before axing council services.

The data, obtained by the Conservative Group, for 2015/16 revealed the council paid £3,865,746 to individuals and another £2,567,384 million to companies over the 12-month period.

Deputy Conservative Group leader Cllr Barry Macleod-Cullinane during this time the authority closed four libraries and cut voluntary sector funding - but more than three times the annual budget for the whole library service was spent on "expensive interim experts and consultancy services".

The group's finance spokesman, said: “What this information shows is Labour’s bizarre spending choices. On one hand you’ve got libraries closing, cash stripped away from the voluntary sector and the arts centre put on life support, and on the other there’s a fortune spent on consultants and external specialists."

Six people were paid more than £100,000 for their work for the council during 2015/16.

While the authority's consultancy spending was more than £1 million in people services and in excess of £700,000 in community. Just over £700,000 was also spent on consultants for the regeneration & planning and resources & commercial departments.

In comparison, between May 2010 and September 2012 the council spent a total of £4,078,040 on consultants.

Cllr Macleod-Cullinane said: “This is exactly the sort of spending that Labour should look to cut before taking the axe to services, and the fact that these figures are so high show Labour aren’t doing their job properly – they should be going through then line by line.

"For all Labour’s bleating about not getting enough money from government, it is increasingly clear the real issue for Harrow is how the administration spends - and often wastes - the money it actually has."

Michael Lockwood, chief executive for Harrow Council, said the authority was being more business-like.

He said: "Hiring temporary staff means that we can deliver important services for residents and bring in specialist skills as and when required to deliver value for money.

"This is because we don’t have the additional employment costs that come with hiring a permanent member of staff.

"This is how businesses operate and shows the council is being more business-like and responsible with taxpayers money.

"Like all Councils and businesses we have to bring in professional auditors, surveyors and engineers on our major building sites and independent chairs for our safeguarding services."