TORY leaders have promised to put a brake on hiring agency and temporary staff at Kirklees Council.
Their pledge of a review came after the Examiner revealed £6.5m was spent on temps last year.
Unions have condemned the spending as a `waste'.
Now the council's new Tory Cabinet - which took over from the Liberal Democrats last month - has said it will probe their use.
Clr Andrew Palfreeman, Cabinet member for policy development, said: "As we settle into running this council it is becoming more apparent all the time that the previous administration did not really have their eye on the ball.
"We have already revealed our plans to modernise and reorganise the council's workforce.
"Getting the use of temporary agency staff under control is an aspect of those plans.
"I accept it will be impossible to never use temporary staff and they perform an important role. But there can be no justification for Kirklees spending £4m more than Rotherham."
The GMB union called for adequate levels of permanent staff.
It said the only winners were employment agencies, who took a large slice of money.
Kirklees says it employs about 1,000 temps at any one time.
