THE use of volunteers by Worcestershire County Council has been derided as "pathetic" by the opposition Labour group leader.

Councillor Peter McDonald has criticised County Hall's ongoing drive to recruit more people, despite the tactic saving the public purse well over £1.2 million a year.

In response to ex-Prime Minister David Cameron's 'Big Society' call local authorities around the county have focused heavily on volunteering in recent years.

Worcestershire is now thought to have as many as 30,000 people doing some sort of community effort, including more than 4,300 recruited via the county council direct.

Councillor McDonald, a longstanding critic of it, attended a meeting of the Conservative cabinet to criticise the campaign.

The Conservative leadership responded by pointing to the economy, with more people being in paid work than ever before.

Councillor McDonald said: "Isn't it rather pathetic that a county council of this size, with hundreds of millions to spend, cannot provide services without getting out the begging bowl?"

It led to a series of Tory politicians defending the move, with Councillor Marc Bayliss saying they have a "fundamental" difference of opinion.

"I make no apology for making use of volunteers, they get something out of it and we get something out of it," he said.

Councillor Lucy Hodgson, the cabinet member for localism and communities, added: "Volunteering is absolutely vital to this county.

"It's those sort of people who give so much to our community."

A fellow Conservative cabinet member, Councillor Ken Pollock, insisted the volunteers were not blocking anyone's jobs.

"It'd be a perfectly reasonable thing to say (the criticism) if we were replacing large numbers of paid people with volunteers, but that's not the case," he said.

"If you look at the latest employment rates, there are not lots of people out there looking for work.

"When George Osborne announced his plan for the economy people said it'd be a disaster, Labour said unemployment would go up by one million, but they were wrong.

"So was Christine Lagarde at the IMF (International Monetary Fund), who later apologised - the economy is in good health."

During the debate Councillor McDonald called the comments "shocking and outrageous".

"We don't accept that five per cent levels of unemployment is acceptable in this county, we believe cross-party that we need to eradicate it," he said.

The leader, Councillor Simon Geraghty, told him "all the people who said it wouldn't work all those years ago were wrong".

"I can assure you Peter, we work every day with the Government to try and get more people into employment, there is always more to do," he said.

"But the current record isn't good, it's excellent."