COUNCIL staff hailed as star performers in official ratings were rewarded with a bag of 47p chocolates each.

Worcestershire County Council received a four-star rating by the Audit Commission and said thanks by giving each of almost 5,000 staff a packet of Milky Way Magic Stars and star-themed notepad, which cost more than £3,000.

One worker, who did not want to be identified, slammed the gesture as "pathetic".

They said: "Tax payers' money being wasted on chocolates and a notepad for every employee of the county council!

"Not only that, but it is pretty insulting to all the council workers to think that they would be pleased to receive a bag of Milky Way Magic Stars! How patronising is that?"

The worker sent your Worcester News a copy of a memo which said managers should distribute the gifts "as a mark of our thanks and appreciation".

It read: "Where staff have desks, please leave the notepad and packet of Milky Bar Stars on their desk, again on the evening of the February 6 2008, so that they are there when they arrive at work on the February 7."

The worker added: "Who knew we even had an improvement manager? Is that the sort of person the county needs when cash is tight?"

However, the council has defended its decision to spend just over £3,000 rewarding its staff.

Wendy James, Worcestershire County Council Improvement Manager, said: "We wanted to thank staff for their hard work in ensuring Worcestershire County Council retained its four-star rating for the third year running. This is also part of an awareness-raising campaign to make sure staff know that the way we are assessed is changing this year and reinforce the continued need to improve services. The theme is stars - linked to our top four-star rating that the Audit Commission continues to give us - so we sent Milky Way Stars and small notepads with stars on them so that there were both short-term and long-term reminders of the changing assessments.

"People are entitled to have an opinion and several people thanked us for the gesture that we sent to nearly 5,000 employees."

Meanwhile Worcester's Labour MP Mike Foster said: "If they were given a huge performance based pay increase, that would be funded by the council tax payer and I've no doubt people would be objecting to that, so I think the authority's stuck between a rock and a hard place on how to symbolically thank the staff, knowing that they can't make huge financial payments.

"I can understand where the staff are coming from if they feel upset and insulted, but I understand and empathise with the council for wanting to recognise the contribution of the staff."