A row has broken out over the legal bill a council has clocked up in actions against staff who were sacked after raising concerns about care services for children and the elderly.

A senior opposition councillor in Cardiff claims the local authority has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds with a private law firm defending cases brought by employees who have been suspended or sacked.

Mr Neale said the council is "in denial"

But Gareth Neale, leader of the Conservative group on the council, suggested the failings pointed out by the whistleblowing workers have proved to have been valid criticisms of the city's social services.

He said senior Cardiff councillors and council officials are in a "state of denial" over the shortcomings in the city's services for caring for children and the elderly.

Mr Neale said the taxpayers' cash which the local authority has spent on legal fees - estimated at �500,000 - could have been used on the services which are soon to be the subject of a report by the Audit Commission and the assembly's social services inspectorate.

The report is expected to be highly critical of the south Wales authority's social services department.

Neil White is fighting his dismissal

A council spokesman confirmed the law firm, Eversheds, was working for the authority but would not comment on the cost of its services.

Mr Neale claimed that he was described as a "Cardiff City football hooligan" when he tried to raise the issue at a council meeting.

"We're talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds that has been spent on a case which is basically around the council's denial that it's doing things wrong when clearly they are doing things wrong.

"They are in a state of denial. It is very worrying - there isn't a debate."

He said he was even more worried by the changes the local authority had made ahead of the Audit Commission report, by eliminating certain posts within social services.

"The posts they have disposed of are the very officers who have been telling them that things are wrong inside the service.

Beverley Bush raised concerns about elderly care

"What the authority should do, as it should have done two years ago, is to recognise that there are problems inside the delivery of services both to children and to elderly people."

Cardiff council has said claims that people who had used proper whistleblowing procedures were sacked were ridiculous and wrong.

It said Eversheds was employed 11 months ago and part of its remit was to fight claims such as those of former social work manager Neil White, who was sacked from the authority last week after refusing to discipline a whistleblower.

Mr White has begun a fight at an industrial tribunal for reinstatement.

Charles Faber was suspended and later sacked

He was suspended from duty last year after refusing to discipline domestic worker Beverley Bush when she alleged residents were being mistreated at a council-run care home.

Ms Bush was the first to reveal concerns about the Hazelcroft home in the Fairwater area of the city.

Several staff were disciplined, suspended or sacked before the 37-bed home closed earlier this year.

Both staff are members of the British Union of Social Work Employees, which has condemned the sackings.

Mr White's dismissal came four months after fellow social services manager Charles Faber was sacked.

BBC documentary

He had raised concerns about the effect of staffing levels on vulnerable children during an interview for a BBC documentary.

Mr White and representatives of his union will be guests at a press conference held at the County Conservative Club on Friday.

Conservative councillors have invited Liberal Democrat and Plaid Cymru council members to the event, which they say is non-political.

Hazelcroft Residential Home and social services will be discussed during the conference.

Mr Neale added: "Charles Faber and his evidence proved that we're not looking after young children - the initial reports on Hazelcroft proved that we haven't been looking after the elderly people in Cardiff properly."

Conservative councillors are also preparing a notice of motion on the subject which will go before the next Cardiff council meeting.