by political editor Paul Francis

The profits of one of Kent County Council's flagship trading companies have slumped by nearly 50% in a year.

Kent Top Temps, which incorporates the bus company Kent Top Travel, saw profits fall in 2011-12 to £220,000 from £420,000 the previous year - a drop of 47%.

Another KCC company saw an even more dramatic slump.

County Print, a printing and graphic design company, made £17,000 compared to £125,000 the previous year, a drop of more than 80%.

Together, KCC's commercial services returned £8.84m in 2011-12 compared to £10.02m the previous year - a fall of more than £1m.

Kent Top Temps was set up by KCC in 2002 and has become one of the county's highest profile recruitment agencies - covering temporary, permanent and contract work.

The limited company also incorporates Kent Top Travel, a bus company that operates a fleet for both contract and private hire.

It runs a number of commercial routes throughout the county as well as the Canterbury park and ride scheme and in the past has drawn criticism from private bus firms.

The county council says the success of its extensive commercial trading helps raise much-needed cash that helps cushion the impact of spending cuts.

But the mixed results for Kent Top Temps, which had a turnover of more than £34m, has prompted questions from opposition county councillors.

Cllr Tim Prater (Lib Dem) said: "If you are looking at a turnover of £34m and about a quarter of a million pound profit, you should ask whether this is a realistic business strategy and whether it is fulfilling a need that could be better met by the open market.

"We are not being given enough information to enable us to make a reasonable judgement."

Other results show mixed fortunes for other KCC companies.

The Laser energy group, which buys energy on behalf of other councils and public bodies, made £3.3m compared to £3.6m the previous year.

However, landscape services, a grounds maintenance company, saw a return of £412,000 compared to £305,000 the previous year.

Cllr John Simmonds (Con), KCC's finance cabinet member, said the money raised from commercial trading remained significant. However, he hinted that KCC was looking closely at whether to stay operating in some markets in view of the economy.

"We have to be reasonably hard-nosed about it and if they are not giving a reasonable rate of return, then what is the point of being in it?"

"Collectively, we are on target to deliver what we want them to do, which is £8m of income, which would be about 1.5% increase on council tax without it."

A KCC report recently leaked to the KM Group was highly critical of the way the council had monitored its trading companies.

The consultants' report also said some companies were not transparent enough and inadequately audited.