Wakefield Council approves £22m budget cuts

Budget cuts of £22m which will result in up to 50 job losses over the next financial year have been approved by Wakefield Council.

The Labour-run authority said it had to make £71m of savings by 2015.

The budget includes plans to reduce opening hours for swimming pools and raise charges in areas of social care.

Council leader Peter Box said: "Once again this is a really tough budget." More than 600 jobs have been lost at the council since October 2010.

The authority estimated that by 2015 the total number of jobs lost would be 1,700.

It said most of the job reductions to date had been achieved through voluntary methods with some compulsory redundancies.