50 staff to go in Northumberland council cuts

Posted by The Journal on Feb 5, 09 09:28 AM in Councils

Around 50 staff will lose their jobs through compulsory redundancies when the new unitary Northumberland County Council is launched in April.

New estimated figures have been disclosed by Coun Andrew Tebbutt, executive member for corporate services for the council.

He said that when the new county council comes in to being there will be 440 job losses, but these will be mostly covered by voluntary redundancies.

In answer to a question at a recent community assembly held in Blyth Valley, Coun Tebbutt said: "440 people will not have jobs but these will mostly be covered by voluntary redundancies with somewhere around 50 being the current estimate for compulsory."

The new Liberal Democrat-controlled county council will have 800 fewer positions available but this will have been offset prior to the changeover by natural wastage and not filling vacant posts.

Fears that up to 3,000 council jobs could be axed in Northumberland as part of local government reforms were dismissed in November last year by Steven Stewart, the new chief executive officer of Northumberland County Council.

He said then that a figure of between 600 and 700 redundancies would not be wide of the mark.

But there has been continued controversy with Blyth Valley councillor Bob Watson saying he fears that between 1,900 and 3,000 jobs would be lost.

He claimed that more redundancies would follow in coming years to increase the figures. The new council has to find ÃÂ£55m in savings in its first three years and 80% of local government spending is on staff.

There are currently around 7,000 people employed by the seven councils which are to merge.

More than 800 people said they would be interested in taking voluntary redundancy.

But the council has warned it will hang on to workers it considers crucial to services and could use compulsory redundancy to clear out others it does not need.

An alternative budget package put forward by the Labour Party for Northumberland's new super-council proposed making about 450 council posts redundant this year and reducing the total amount to be found in efficiency savings from ÃÂ£25.4m to ÃÂ£16.1m.

Labour leaders say their strategy is designed to safeguard key public services, avoid hundreds of redundancies and protect local economies from further harm at a time of crisis.

The Labour group's package also includes freezing, rather than significantly increasing, adult care charges, and vetoes a bumper rise in allowances for the 67 members of the new unitary authority.

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