Durham County Council cuts plan will save £125m

Durham County Council employs 10,000 people

Durham County Council has revealed the extent of £125m of cuts it will have to deliver over the next four years.

The authority has warned about 1,600 jobs will go as well as support for job creation schemes, libraries, public transport and museums.

Leader of the Labour-controlled council Simon Henig, said there would be an impact on some frontline services.

Proposals include a review of adult social care services which are predicted to save about £12m.

Mr Henig said the reductions amounted to about 30% of the council's budget over four years.

He said: "Inevitably these government cutbacks will impact on the services we provide, however, we have done our best to respond to residents' top priorities.

"As a result we plan to maintain our existing spend on winter maintenance and our existing capital spend on highway maintenance and repairs.

"We will also plan to invest in child protection and do our best to protect a number of areas of adult social care."

"This will of course mean hitting other areas but again, we have listened, and a range of support services, including management and communications, will therefore face larger reductions."

Savings proposed include more than £6m for a revision of waste and refuse facilities, £3m from county-wide job creation projects, £1.3m from sports and leisure budgets and a further £1.4m from a review of libraries.

A spokesman for the public sector union Unison, which has 6,000 members in the council's 10,000-strong workforce, described the proposed cuts as "massive."

He called on the council to use some of the estimated £90m it had in reserves to protect frontline services.