Rotherham Council proposes 200 job losses for next budget cuts

Rotherham Council has announced that 200 jobs may go in the next round of budget cuts, on top of 1,000 job losses revealed in the last two budgets.

In addition to the redundancies, the council must reduce its 2012-13 budget by £20.4m.

Council tax and staff salary increments will be frozen under the proposals.

Council chief executive Martin Kimber said he was confident most of the redundancies would be voluntary.

"We've had a very good track record of taking staffing out of the council through voluntary means, and that would be our objective again," he said.

"Our staff are the most important resource we have. They're highly valued by the public."

Working conditions

Mr Kimber said savings had already been made at the council by streamlining administration, bureacuracy and management.

But the authority has pledged that children's services and protecting vulnerable people would remain a priority.

Promoting new businesses and stimulating the local economy would also be a priority, the council said.

However, Mr Kimber said it was "inevitable" that people would see a difference in the services they received.

Two years ago council spending was at a level of £8,000 per man, woman and child. This had been reduced to less than £800 per person, he said.

In 2010, Rotherham Council was told to save £64m in the government's 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review.

So far, £41m of this has been saved and a further £12m must be saved from next year's budget.

Mick Stowe, Rotherham Unison secretary, said every job loss was a loss to the local economy.

"It's important to put political pressure on the Conservative government, to let them know that the cuts are too deep, too fast," he said.