Council to axe jobs to save money

A Derbyshire council has announced it is shedding jobs in a bid to reduce a £2.5m deficit in its £17.5m budget.

Amber Valley Borough Council said it was currently reviewing its management structure in order to reduce costs.

The council has offices in Alfreton, Heanor, Belper and Ripley and has a workforce of about 386 staff.

A spokesperson said it had not yet finalised how many jobs would be affected but the restructure was likely to include a number of redundancies.

Government funding

In a statement the council said: "We are actively exploring alternatives for staff such as voluntary redundancy or redeployment although at this stage compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out.

"However we will do everything possible to keep any future job losses to a minimum."

The council blamed the deficit on government funding increases not being in line with inflation.

It also said the free bus pass scheme had had an impact on its budget.