Senior council officials in Glasgow will spend thousands of pounds on entertaining politicians and business contacts this weekend despite facing the biggest financial crisis in its history.

Glasgow City Council’s land and environmental services department (LES) is to host a corporate hospitality tent at the Glasgow Show across the weekend, where invited councillors, MSPs, other guests and their families will be treated to complimentary alcohol and food.

Past years have seen the department, of which Robert Boot, right, is executive director, provide free beers, wines, cold meats, salads and other buffet foods, as well as teas and coffees, to scores of guests across the two days of the show.

Free tickets are also being given to all 79 councillors for a Motown musical tribute show during the weekend.

The council was unable to provide a cost figure for this year or previous year’s events but sources have said £10,000 would not be far off the mark.

The move has been condemned by union leaders, who claim the cash being spent on the hospitality sends out the wrong signal to a workforce that has seen significant changes to working conditions and months of industrial action.

LES is facing a radical shake-up, with one- quarter of staff due to leave their jobs over the next three years as the local authority strives to close a £200 million funding gap.

More than 830 staff from a workforce of 3570 are going under a voluntary redundancy scheme with work placements, apprentices and seasonal workers used to boost manpower.

Private-sector contractors may be invited to bid for commercial waste collection, roads resurfacing, transport, waste and recycling services.

A letter to staff said: “There are no wholesale service withdrawals as a result of the reform proposals but there will have to be some measure of prioritisation and review of service cycles commensurate with the resources available.”

Last night, Martin Doran of the GMB union, which represents the bulk of frontline LES staff, said: “I’m expecting that all those employees now working four days on and off for this service will be invited along for some champagne and canapes at the weekend with the rest of them.

“If not, then the tent should be dismantled because of the situation people are leaving in. In an era of cuts this is just appalling.”

He added that a more casualised workforce would help the council save millions on areas like sick pay, and said any outsourced contracts had to go before committees for approval.

Chris Stephens of Unison added: “This just sends out all the wrong signals to a workforce being constantly told that the department needs to tighten its belt and of the need to prioritise. This also comes at a time when we’re being told that there will be more privatisation of services, despite ongoing concerns about the working practices of some of the firms who will no doubt be bidding.”

According to the authority, council staff and police and medical staff on duty during the two days will be fed and refreshed in the hospitality area, as will performers.

The council also entertains sponsors and prospective sponsors “in the interests of securing their support for the event”.

A spokesman said: “The Glasgow Show is one of the city’s best-loved events, enjoyed by tens of thousands of people every year. The council provides hospitality to the many performers, police, staff and sponsors without whom the show simply couldn’t be staged.”