CONSERVATIVE councillors claim Tonbridge and Malling council taxpayers could end up paying £1 million for best value studies which do not produce equivalent savings or increased efficiency in the council's services. They say that the amount being spent on the studies is likely to amount to about £1 million over a three-year period.

The local Tory attack on the Government introduced best value reviews was made at a meeting of Tonbridge and Malling council's policy and resources committee. 28)

Cllr Jill Anderson (Con) labelled the studies a "a complete and utter, total waste of money."

Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Worrall said more than £300,000 had been spent in the first year of best value and this year looked as though the level of spending would be similar this year and next. He said: "What interests me and in particular interests the people of Tonbridge and Malling, who have contributed this money towards the pot, is where will all the millions of pounds of savings and efficiency be this year.

"If you label something as best value it is a reasonable expectation that you are going to get some best value. It seems to me that the expectation would be to get savings to the amount you have spent. I doubt that will be done."

Cllr Worrall added: "I would like to spend money on improving services in the borough not on getting useless information to pass on to the government which doesn't seem to understand what is going on."

Finance director David Hughes said that research carried out for shire districts had established that the average annual cost for district councils was £350,000 - remarkable similar to Tonbridge and Malling.

Mr Hughes added the council had raised the subject at recent meetings with the two local MPs and they were "under no illusions" about the costs.

Labour group leader Cllr Derek Still said the whole issue was currently being looked at by a team of academics. "Hopefully there will be a serious amount of streamlining to cut out this bureaucracy," he added.