UP TO £150,000 could be spent on five new council spin doctors in Southampton, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The cash-strapped city council is currently advertising vacancies for five new senior communications officers – just months after it announced a number of job losses within its press department.

The authority says the new posts, some of which will be funded by other organisations such as Public Health England, are part of a major restructure of the team which will save £114,000 a year.

But critics described the move as “economic madness” and have accused council chiefs of “frittering away” public money on new spin doctors.

Since the council’s Labour hierarchy unveiled £16m of cuts last year, five media and marketing officers have been made redundant while some jobs have been merged.

That is part of a wider, cross-council management restructuring which the council says will save £387,000 annually.

The five new posts are divided among full-time positions for communications officers dealing with leisure, public health, housing and a generic role, while there is a part-time role dealing with the promotion of future developments in the city.

The full-time roles command salaries of £25,803 to £33,927 with the part-time job having an annual wage of £12,901 to £16,963.

Two of the roles have been paid for by external bodies. The public health press officer will be funded through NHS funding for the handover of public health duties to the council and the part-time role will be funded by the Government.

The council is also spending £21,000 on a 12-month contract with an external PR agency which is working with the authority’s transport team on plans to build a sustainable distribution centre on the outskirts of the city.

Labour Councillor Against The Cuts Don Thomas said: “There is no justification spending hard-earned public money in these hard times on communication officers, it really is economic madness. Public money is public money whether it’s internal funds or external funds.

“If spare money is available then let’s use it to help restore even a little of the devastating cuts. Frittering public money away on spin doctors should never ever be this council's priority.”

The leader of the council’s Conservative opposition, Royston Smith, added: “The city council has to find around £60m of savings. One of the ways to do this is to share more services with neighbouring authorities.

“A restructure such as this is an ideal time to work more closely with partners but once again Labour has missed the opportunity.”

A council spokesman said that the new communications team “in its new configuration” will deliver savings for the taxpayer of more than £100,000 and provide “more joined up and efficient support at the same time.”

He added: “The overall reduction included the deletion of the director of communications post in 2012/13 and the replacing of two media officers and three marketing officers with three senior communications officers.”