Bristol City Council announces extra job cuts

Bristol City Council will cut 340 jobs during the next financial year, it has announced.

The authority said 160 of the job losses would be made up through either voluntary or compulsory redundancies.

Another 180 of those would come through "managing vacancies, redeployment and natural wastage".

The number is up from the 300 announced in October because the council has to save an extra £6m.

It had planned to save £22m in 2011/12 but that figure rose after the government grant settlement was announced.

The council's chief executive, Jan Ormondroyd, said the authority was keen to avoid forcing members of staff to leave.

"We hope that most of these will be through our new voluntary severance scheme with compulsory redundancies as a last resort.

"These numbers are not as large as other authorities across the country, principally because we have focussed on managing our vacancies over the last year, with 400 council posts already gone."

But Unison branch secretary Martin Jones said his members were being "clobbered left, right and centre".

He said: "When I ask the direct question [about the cuts], the standard reply is that they will protect frontline services.

"It isn't going to happen - so at some point there will be cuts, but we don't know where."

A three-month consultation period has begun with the staff affected.