Wirral Council chief executive Graham Burgess has been forced to defend the authority's seven figure spend on consultancy and interim managers, following Freedom of Information revelations.

Details of the payment totalling around £1m were disclosed following a request from local elected member Cllr Ian Lewis.

Wirral revealed a total of 18 temporary managers were brought in for specific projects, and the external hires included an interim finance executive from November 2012 to March 2014 at a cost of £173,950 and an IT strategy specialist taken on at a cost of £135,275 from November 2012 to January 2014.