Derbyshire County Council reveals plans to axe hundreds more jobs

Hundreds more jobs will be cut at the county council next year.
Derbyshire County Council headquartersDerbyshire County Council headquarters
Derbyshire County Council headquarters

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Derbyshire County Council was due to cut 260 full time roles over the next 12 months.

This figure has now been revised down by 144 to 116 for the current financial year, with 42 being cut so far.

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But the revised 144 roles will now be cut next year instead – in addition to another 318 jobs – totalling 462, in order meet its funding savings targets.

A spokesperson for the authority said that there are currently 360 jobs on offer at the council, which are all advertised online.

Of the jobs cut so far, she said: “These jobs have been lost through redeployment, deletion of vacant posts, voluntary release and compulsory redundancy.”

In October, it was announced by Derby City Council that it had plans to cut 128 jobs in a bid to balance its multi-million budget shortfall.

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It says that these would be cut via voluntary redundancy wherever possible.

But what are other councils in the area up to?

Derbyshire Dales District Council says that it has not identified any job losses going forward, but conceded that in recent months, 60 full time roles have been lost.

This is largely as a result of outsourcing the management of the authority’s four leisure centres over to a private company – Freedom Leisure.

A spokesman said: “In the past five years, the number of full time jobs at this council has reduced from 260 to 175, but none have gone on a compulsory redundancy basis.”

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Erewash Borough Council approved plans on Thursday, November 8 to also hand over the running of its five leisure centre to a private firm – the name of which has not been disclosed.

Job losses have not been mooted as part of this agreement, but Labour members of the authority state that council leisure staff face an “uncertain Christmas”.

To date, the authority has not cut any jobs during the current financial year, and the future of roles going forward “is still to be determined”.

At Amber Valley Borough Council, a spokesperson said: “There are no plans for job cuts in this year, next year or future years but any job vacancies which arise will be reviewed before recruitment takes place.”

Meanwhile, at South Derbyshire District Council, no job cuts are being proposed.

Eddie Bisknell , Local Democracy Reporting Service