The bill for Sutton Council’s new team of spin doctors looks set to increase to more than £220,000 above last year’s sum, despite pledges the amount would not rise.

Taxpayers could be left paying almost £2million over three years, if the move is rubber-stamped by councillors on December 15.

Council bosses hired an external PR team to replace its own in-house set-up in February, on the recommendations of a review which was, coincidentally, carried out by the incoming public relations team.

At the time, Councillor Tony Brett Young said the cost of council’s communication budget, which for 2007/08 was £379,000, would be “not more than we spend at the moment’’.

But it rose to £573,600 in 2008/2009 for the same-sized team to come in from Westminster City Council, an increase of £194,600.

Last week, executive Liberal Democrat councillors moved to increase it by a further £27,000, so that the total annual cost for 2008/2009 would reach £600,000.

But the motion was later called in by the opposition.

They argued it should be publicly debated in a meeting of all the councillors later this month.

Conservative deputy leader Councillor Tony Shields said: “The council’s ruling Lib Dems have broken their promise to not increase communication costs.

“They thought they could spend £1.8million on the quiet without being accountable to council tax payers.

“In this open forum on December 15, the Lib Dems can explain how they can find nearly £2million for communications, but will slash the SEN transport budget to save a fraction of that amount.’’ Only one person from the old PR team still works for Sutton Council from last year’s team.

A council spokesman said the amount spent on corporate communications equates to 0.15% of the council’s annual gross spend, about 14p per Sutton household per week.

He said: “We are currently identifying communications savings across the authority and are committed to generating income to keep the cost of communications down.

“Good communications ensure residents, including the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, are able to access the huge range of vital services we deliver on their behalf each day.

“The nearly £2m contract would be over three years.

“Even if the cost of providing SEN transport does not rise, we would be spending nearly £13m on the service over the same three year period."