More than £5 million of taxpayers' money was spent by Bradford Council on advertising in 12 months.

Council chiefs paid out £2.2m on staff recruiting and property and a further £3.3m on publicity and promotional services in 2006/7 - a total of £5.5m and up from £5.3m the previous 12 months.

Since 1996/7 there has been a 509.9 per cent hike in spending when just £907,000 was paid out.

According to research published today by the Tax Payer's Alliance which collated information from councils across the country, Bradford spent the fourth highest amount of cash on publicity in the last financial year. Birmingham was highest, which spent more than £10m.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said the figures were collated to show the disparities and drive home the message money was being wasted.

He said: "It's important for council taxpayers to see just how their hard-earned money is being spent by town halls.

"With council tax doubling in the past decade, it's extremely disappointing that councils have chosen to double their publicity budgets over the same period. With the internet cutting the cost of communication, it shouldn't be difficult for local authorities to find savings in this area and bring council tax down."

Nationally town halls forked out £450 million in the 12 months. Across Yorkshire figures reveal no other council spent as much as Bradford.

Leeds spent £4.3 million ranking them 13th, Kirklees £1.78 million (84th), Calderdale £809,000 (161st), and Wakefield £1.66 million (92nd). Despite no other council in Yorkshire outspending Bradford chiefs, other councils across the region recorded larger increases from 1996/7 to their current spend.

A Council spokesman said: "The figures only break it down to staff recruiting and property advertising' and publicity and promotional services,' not whether the work has been done by an external contractor.

"These are the categories we are asked to report on by the Audit Commission. Going back any further than the last five years there would appear to be an increase, as these figures were recorded differently before then, when essentially there hasn't been any great increase."

The Council would not comment any further.