Essex County Council 'to offer job' to Apprentice runner-up

A council which says it may offer a job to a television reality show contestant was today criticised for wasting public money on a "publicity stunt".

Essex County Council said it was considering making a proposition to the runner up on the BBC show The Apprentice.

A spokeswoman said officials did not know what job or salary they would offer.

Campaign group The TaxPayers' Alliance said the council was "deluded".

"Essex County Council is as ambitious as any private company," said council leader Lord Hanningfield. "We unashamedly want the best and brightest to come and work for us."

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said private companies would not behave in such a fashion.

"This only confirms people's worries about local government," he said.

"While council tax rises relentlessly, all too often councils seem more interested in publicity stunts and over-inflated executive salaries than in providing the essential services we pay them for.

"Lord Hanningfield is seriously deluded if he thinks any ambitious private company would splash cash on reality TV stars as a PR stunt regardless of whether there was an appropriate post for them."

An Essex County Council spokesman said: "This is a typical response from the rent-a-quote Taxpayers' Alliance, and shows their complete lack of understanding about what we do as an organisation and our responsibility to raise the county's profile as a place to invest and work, in creating jobs and providing a good quality of life for our residents."