Council approves redundancy cuts

Plans have been approved to cut more than 200 posts at Stoke-on-Trent City Council to plug a budget funding gap.

Councillors backed axing up to 240 posts at a cabinet meeting earlier through voluntary redundancies.

Previously 527 staff showed interest in redundancy and officials believe frontline services will be unaffected.

The council said it needed to save between £5m and 12m to plug its funding gap and staff who accepted redundancy could leave from the end of next month.

Minimum overspend

The precise roles to be cut have yet to be confirmed. Councillors can still call the decision in for discussion and approval from full council.

If 240 staff took voluntary redundancy it could save the council £578,000 in the financial year 2009-2010 and £5.4 m in the financial year 2010-2011, the council said.

Councillor Kieran Clarke, cabinet member for resources, said:"Voluntary redundancies will allow us to implement the [service efficiency] changes we had already been planning and to save money."

The council manages a £200m annual budget and is planning for a £5m minimum overspend in its 2009-2010 budget.

A spokesman said the overspend was partly due to reduced incomes from chargeable council services.

In addition all councils were being asked by the government to provide more staffing hours for free children's services and councils also had to spend more on providing care for older people, due to changes in the government funding system to offer people more choice.

The spokesman said the council was also preparing itself for a further £7m shortfall, because if interest rates remain low, the council will receive a lower than predicted income.