250 more council staff face job losses

Councillor Colin Lambert

Two hundred and fifty members of staff at Rochdale Borough Council are likely to lose their jobs as part of the Council’s plans to save £65million in the next financial year.

The Council has today (Monday 7 February 2011) announced details of another £14million of savings.

Staff are now being briefed on these proposals which if implemented, would see a reduction of approximately 250 jobs - many of which, it is hoped, will be achieved by voluntary redundancies.

The proposals include:

• £2.1 million, Adult Care - reductions to the Supporting People funding, delivering the reduction in the Supporting People Programme in line with government funding. Reduction in staff, rationalising floating support, renegotiating contracts, arrangements and values.
• £1.4 million, Finance /Legal /People Management/Performance and Transformation/Customers and Communications - reduction of posts, internal budgets and withdrawal of prompt payment discount (1.5 per cent) for customers paying their council tax in full by 10 April.
• £1.5 million - Learners and Young People/Schools and Children’s Services - reduction in the number of posts and internal budget reductions.
• £1.2 million, Environmental Management and Business Partnerships - savings from partners, restructure of Environmental Management, reduction of posts in Business Partnerships, changes to bulky waste collection service and rural waste collection rounds, changes to frequency of the recycled waste collection service, review of countryside and street services.
• £2 million - Planning and Regulation/Strategic Housing/Regeneration - reduction in the number of posts together with internal budget reductions and increases in income. 

The proposals will be considered by Councillors on Thursday (10 February 2011), with public and staff consultation expected to start from 1 March.

Council Leader Colin Lambert said: “No decisions have been taken on these proposals, but we do want residents to have a look and tell us what they think.

"Inevitably such a significant reduction in government funding will impact on the services we provide, however, we will continue to do our best to respond to residents' top priorities.”

The closing date for Phase Three of the public consultation will be Monday 30 May 2011 at 5pm. Consultation responses and suggestions will be considered before decisions are announced in June 2011.