Council bosses who hired a luxury hotel suite to interview for new executives have been accused of "needless extravagance."

Cash-strapped Durham City Council hired a conference room at the Marriott Royal County Hotel to interview candidates for two posts, one as head of cultural services and the other as head of finance.

Yet the city council's own web-site advertises its own conference facilities at a range of venues in the city, including the £14m Gala Theatre which, it boasts, has "a 500-seat multi-purpose auditorium providing performance, conference and meeting facilities as well as exhibition and bar/catering circulation spaces."

It also has the Town Hall in the Market Place, complete with "fine hammer-beam roof, wood panelling and stained glass windows."

Conference facilities are also advertised at five council-owned leisure centres across the city boundaries.

David Bell, leader of the opposition Labour group on the council, said: "The Liberal Democrats are always complaining about not having enough money. Yet the Cabinet is booking rooms in the Royal County Hotel to interview applicants for new posts they have created through a new staff structure."

Coun Bell pointed out that the £14m city council-owned Gala Theatre in Durham City Centre had conference facilities, adding: "I cannot understand why the council could not have used the Gala, the Town Hall or new conference rooms at Dragonville owned by the city council. It seems like a needless extravagance.

"The Gala Theatre is an under-used and attractive venue. The Liberal Democrats are sending out the wrong messages, they want to attract people to use the conference facilities there but do not use the theatre themselves."

The revelation that the city council had hired the £145 a night Marriott Royal County Hotel came at the same time as it announced cuts in its visits to the elderly through its City Care scheme, reducing staff visits from once every two weeks to once every six weeks.

"The LibDems are letting older people down. They should get their priorities right," added Coun Bell.

He was supported by Independent Durham county councillor John Shuttleworth, who said: "It is scandalous that the city council should hire rooms in a hotel when they own The Gala and could have used its facilities free of charge."

But Fraser Reynolds, leader of the city council, retorted: "David Bell did not complain when he was sitting in on the interviews at the Royal County.

"The two posts are extremely important and we wanted to attract the very best candidates.

"We would not normally have hired the Royal County Hotel but we did want to create the right impression.

"We only hired the room for a couple of hours, and ordered tea and biscuits. It was nothing too extravagant."

Coun Reynolds said he did not know how much it cost the council to hire the conference facilities and a spokesman for the Marriott Royal County Hotel said yesterday he was unable to provide details of the cost.

But the hotel does provide "comprehensive meeting facilities complemented by expert catering and audiovisual resources."

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