COUNCILS in Kent spent nearly £12million on publicity last year, with Kent County Council spending the third highest sum of any authority in the country, a survey has shown.

According to figures compiled by the lobby group Taxpayers' Alliance, most councils have doubled their spending on publicity over the last decade.

In the case of Kent County Council, spending on publicity has soared by a 367 per cent over 10 years. In 1996-97, the county council spent £1.4million but in 2006-2007, it spent nearly £6.6million.

The county council recently launched Kent TV, an initiative that is costing £1.4million but which KCC says will be self-funding.

Only two other councils - Birmingham and Liverpool - spent more.

KCC deputy leader Cllr Alex King said: "KCC is the largest shire authority in the country with over 1.4 million people.

"As with all councils, we have a statutory duty to communicate to people how they access their services as well as ensuring people get value for money.

"This can range from advice on school admissions and how to register for births and marriages to running a Child Road Safety campaign to lower child casualties.

"In context, this is a small part of a budget of nearly £2 billion for delivering services."

He added: "KCC constantly reviews how we communicate with people ensuring value for money. For example, we managed to cut £700,000 in the current financial year from budgets allocated to recruitment advertising spend as we move to more online advertising."

Opposition Labour group leader Cllr Mike Eddy said: "We have always said KCC is spending too much on communications - it is more than Downing Street, which accounts for the whole country. We need effective communications but not at this price."

The second highest spender in Kent was Medway Council, which allocated £1.48million to publicity spending. In Ashford, spending more than doubled to £536,000, a cumulative increase over the period of 134 per cent.

Canterbury City Council spent £304,000 in 2006/07, compared to £189,000 10 years ago, representing a 60 per cent increase. Maidstone spending increased by 87 per cent over the period to £554,000. Two councils spend less than they did 10 years ago - Dartford and Shepway.

The Taxpayers' Alliance also says KCC spent more than any other council in the country on staff advertising. Some £2.8million was spent on recruitment in 2006-2007, although about half of that is for vacancies in Kent's 600-plus schools.

Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliot said councils should be doing more to reduce publicity spending.

"With council tax doubling in the past decade, it is extremely disappointing that some councils have chosen to double their publicity budgets over the same period," he said.