Council jobs toll 'could hit 2,000'
THE former leader of Kirklees Council has warned that 2,000 council staff are likely to lose their jobs.
The council had previously said 1,500 jobs would be axed to cope with an expected 20 per cent cut in spending, but Coun Robert Light (Con, Birstall and Birkenshaw) predicted there would be more.
He said: “We all know that local government and all government departments are facing cutbacks of five per cent over the next four years and Kirklees is not exempt from that.
“This is over four years, not three, so this will push the number of redundancies up to 2,000.”
In January the authority announced plans to offer every non-school council worker voluntary redundancy as it tries to slash its budget.
It also plans to reduce its senior management team from 36 to 23.
But Coun Light said there was a ‘fundamental problem’ with the number of middle managers in the council’s hierarchy and it should be posts in those tiers which were cut first.
He said: “There seems to be a token few losses at the top of the tree but there are too many middle managers and that is a fundamental problem.
“There are a number of councils which have been successful in reducing the layers, like Oldham Council.
“Some councils have up to 14 layers of management and when some councils can run on four levels, there is a real issue that Kirklees has not got its teeth into.
“There needs to be a proper analysis of each department.”
He added that the cuts were already affecting essential services.
“They are cutting out key people we need,” he said.
“Culture and leisure services is basically being destroyed and being spread across different departments.
“This is very damaging as their work makes a big impact on the quality of life for people in Kirklees.
“Also the highways department is also facing a major cut back, and we all know what a state our roads are in. It’s absolute folly.”
But council leader Mehboob Khan hit back at Coun Light, accusing the former council chief of ‘scaremongering’.
He said: “Last September we took an extremely thorough look at the way the global recession was going to impact on the council’s budget.
“We took the responsible and forward-thinking approach by covering a lengthy period of the next three to five years and all the signs are that our calculations were right.
“Coun Light’s comments are out of touch with reality, but that is hardly surprising because the financial picture has changed since the Tories lost control of the council over 12 months ago.”
He said councils all over the country were facing a similar situation, but Kirklees was making plans well in advance and hoped to avoid crisis cuts further down the line.
“It is vital to stress that, although these are large-scale changes, we are working hard to avoid cuts in those important frontline services that many people rely on.
“These are tough times for local government, but we have planned a level-headed approach and, unlike Coun Light, we will not indulge in scaremongering.”
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Weather for Batley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
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Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light rain
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