Nearly £125,000 of public money has been spent on council staff award ceremonies over the last three years, figures released today show.

The cash has been splashed by Wolverhampton City Council on venue hire, catering and staffing, as well as buying trophies and gift-vouchers.

The outlays come as councillors try to reduce spending through a number of savage cost-cutting measures which has seen the closure of Underhill House, could see the price of meals on wheels for the elderly nearly double, the city’s visitor information centre close and staff face redundancy.

Roy Girdler, secretary of the over 50’s forum which has been at the forefront of a campaign not to cut old people’s services, said: “It’s an absolutely horrifying amount to spend at a time when other services are being reduced.

“It’s proof the council has their priorities all wrong.

“No-one objects to hard working staff being rewarded but this is too much when that cash could be spent on helping the more vulnerable members of our society.”

Cash has gone on ceremonies including the children and young people annual staff awards, the adults and community annual staff award, the corporate long service awards and training graduation awards.

The revelations, released under the Freedom of Information Act, sparked demands the amount is looked into by the council’s internal audit committee. Labour deputy leader Peter Bilson said: “If there’s any evidence that the awards help motivate staff to become harder working and more proactive then it is worthwhile – but this is a lot of money.

“The council needs to make sure of good value and perhaps the internal audit commission could make sure that is happening.”

John O’Connell, policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: “It’s good that Wolverhampton Council want to recognise staff for excellent work and services. But in these tough economic times, they can still do this without splashing out on expensive awards ceremonies. Any council worker who has lost their job this year, or is facing a pay-freeze in 2010, will surely think that some of this money would be better spent.”

But the outlay was defended by council leader Neville Patten who said it was a relatively small expense for an organisation which employed more than 13,000 people.

He said: “This is a gesture which shows our staff’s hard work, motivation and dedication is appreciated.”

Steve Boyes, interim chief executive, added some of the outlay stayed within the authority as it involved inter-department transactions – such as the children and young people’s department paying for hiring the Civic Hall.

He said: “Recognising the hard work, dedication and achievements of our staff is very important to us and we are proud to do so.”