The council has come under fire for spending £290,000 in less than a year on employing two temporary department bosses - as it plans to axe 100 permanent staff.

Tony Glew, interim head of IT, has cost taxpayers £165,091, including £15,703 expenses, since November last year.

Mike McCabe, interim head of communications, cost £124,856, including £6,756 expenses, since October last year.

Meanwhile, permanent staff were emailed two weeks ago and asked to volunteer for redundancy as part of Hounslow Council’s £6.9m savings proposals this year.

Iain Raymond, Hounslow branch secretary of union Unison, said the “exorbitant” sums were “extremely worrying”.

Councillor Ruth Cadbury, deputy leader of the Labour Group, added: “I think it sends out a very poor message to staff in the council who are facing redundancy or who are facing the prospect of having to do more work as colleagues are made redundant.

“I think there are occasions when you need to pay consultants and need to pay interim specialists to fill short-term gaps, but both these posts seem to be quite long term and I can’t understand why they can not be filled by permanent post-holders at the appropriate equivalent pay grade.”

The council initially refused to say how much it pays an agency for the two contractors, but the figures were revealed following a Freedom of Information request by the Hounslow and Brentford Times.

The authority said its payments included salaries plus management and administration fees.

Coun Cadbury said the staff cuts were “terrible for morale”, while a council source said there was “widespread anger” among workers over contractors’ pay.

Council leader Peter Thompson said: “We use specialist contractors such as these because doing so makes sound business sense, helps manage total costs and enables us to go on delivering low or no rises in the council tax that residents pay.”

He added: “I would add that the continuing use of consultants in both these roles has been carefully planned and considered. Both appointments followed independent reviews of the respective services - IT and communications.

“This is not something we do lightly and these are exceptional cases within the council. They are services that are undergoing significant change and we need people who can quickly bring specific skills and ideas to that process.”