ARGYLL and Bute Council spent over £300,000 on agency staff between the summers of 2023 and 2024, figures have revealed.
A freedom of information request has discovered that three different agencies were paid £65,000 or more by the authority for work between August 2023 and September 2024.
The majority of the total spend was for waste operatives and planning officers, although other roles such as drivers and systems administrators were also used.
Two waste operative roles in the Helensburgh and Lomond area filled by agency staff, which began in June 2022, are also listed as being ongoing until notice is given.
Those two roles came from Hays Specialist Recruitment, which was paid the most by the authority over the period at more than £137,000.
A further waste operative post in Helensburgh was filled by Venesky-Brown Recruitment Ltd from August to September 2024.
A driver role in the town was also occupied by a worker from Hays Specialist Recruitment from September to October of the same year.
Three waste operative roles were also filled by agency staff in the Dunoon area during the specified period.
However, none of the agency staff roles were specifically in the Oban Lorn and the Isles, or Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands, administrative areas.
Several other posts are listed as flexible, defined as council-wide, with regards to their location. Those included two planning officer roles filled by G2 Recruitment Solutions, which were occupied at different times.
Three planning officer roles were also filled by workers from The Oyster Partnership, while there were two systems administrator roles filled by agency staff.
One of those was filled by Harvey Nash Consulting, while the other came from Venesky-Brown Recruitment Ltd.
Vivid Resourcing also supplied the council with two accountancy staff, one of whom is due to remain in post until August 2025.
Those were responsible for the second biggest spend by the council to any particular agency, with Vivid being paid just under £69,000.
The Oyster Partnership was paid £65,229, while Harvey Nash Consulting was paid £18,270, G2 Recruitment Solutions £16,433 and Venesky-Brown Recruitment Ltd £15,280.
