Bournemouth Council has been accused of wasting ‘an astronomical waste of money' in suspending its finance chief for the past four months – after he voiced concerns over the authority's controversial outsourcing deal with Mouchel.

Since he expressed doubts over the value for money and deliverability of the £300m contract in an email sent to councillors last October, chief accountant Stephen Parker has been suspended on full pay awaiting investigation over allegations of gross misconduct.

Mr Parker's position transferred to Mouchel on 1 February as part of an outsourcing deal which sees Bournemouth outsource its IT, revenues and benefits, facilities management, human resources and finance departments to the beleaguered business services provider.

Independent councillor Anne Rey told the BBC the cost of Mr Parker's suspension was ‘an astronomical waste of money'.

‘The chief executive told us Stephen's case would be dealt with before Christmas, then it was after Christmas, now we're in mid February', Ms Rey added.

A statement issued by the council said it would be ‘inappropriate' to comment further while Mr Parker remained under investigation.