COUNTY council bosses were today under fire for spending thousands of pounds employing 'reputation management' consultants to launch decriminalised parking in Lancashire.

The firm has been brought in to promote the launch of council-enforced parking regulations, despite Lancashire County Council only having expanded its own publicity department by £100,000 a year and launching its own corporate magazine recently.

Among the first steps taken by Cheshire-based Commdirect's boss Alison Tipping was to write to media officers at Lancashire's district councils to instruct them that decriminalised parking in Lancashire should no longer be referred to as decriminalised parking.

This, she said, is because people in the county don't understand what it means. Instead, it should be called 'ParkWise' with a short explanation of what it is.

She has also released a 36-point question-and-answer sheet to local councils so they can answer questions about decriminalised parking in a positive way.

Lancashire County Council said it is paying £16,000 to publicise the service through CommDirect and needed to do so because they had experience in media areas they don't.

But Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "That is money which could have been spent filling in pot-holes or actually sorting out the roads.

"I am in favour of this scheme but, as usual, county council has got carried away and gone crazy with the cash."

Barnoldswick Lib Dem county councillor David Whipp said: "The whole thing is a shambles. If anything, this obsession with publicity is just confusing people even more."

The county council on-street enforcers hit the streets in September, when parking is decriminalised and councils take over parking enforcement from the police. Blackburn with Darwen Council, as a unitary authority, takes control of its on-street parking a month later.

Graham Burgess, executive director for regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen, said: "We won't be employing consultants for this, we will be doing it in-house."

A county council spokesman said: "The role of the PR/ Marketing consultant goes beyond media liaison and involves advising on media buying, public information leaflets and keeping all partners at district councils informed."