Union fears Bristol council job cuts may reach 1,000

Public sector union Unison is claiming up to 1,000 jobs could be lost as Bristol City Council tries to cut £30m over the next two years.

The union said the figure was based on losses in councils of equivalent size.

But council leader Barbara Janke said it was too early to comment on the impact on job cuts but they were hoping to avoid compulsory redundancies.

"We'd hope that as far as possible, posts can be lost as necessary when they are vacant," said Ms Janke.

'Big unknown'

Union regional spokesman Chris Howe said: "At the moment, some of these figures are shots in the dark because we've had estimates from North Somerset, Banes (Bath and North East Somerset) and South Gloucestershire.

"The level of discussion that's been taking place between the unions and the management is different, but I'm basing the 1,000 on roughly the equivalent job losses that we can see coming up in counties of similar sizes."

Steve Comer, chairman of the human resources committee, said: "Obviously, if you do a percentage of [the £30m] budget cut compared to the overall budget then that probably gives you a figure of around 1,000.

"It could be more, it could be less. But the big unknown in local government is what happens in the Comprehensive Spending Review which we'll get towards the end of October."