Kirklees council chief says 1,000 vacancies could hit services

The council's chief executive said it was struggling in the face of competition from other local authorities

Kirklees council has 1,000 job vacancies and may be unable to deliver some key services in future, the council's chief executive has warned.

Jacqui Gedman said the council was "really struggling" to recruit and retain staff in "technical areas".

The shortage was a result of competition for staff from other local authorities following the pandemic.

Council leader Shabir Pandor said there was an "issue around capacity" in highways, planning and bin collection.

Ms Gedman told the council's Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on 26 July: "This is certainly something that's on our risk register: that as demand goes up and retention becomes more of an issue if we're not careful, we'll end up with a situation where we actually won't be able to deliver services.

"I certainly think that there are issues currently with some of the technical areas. We're really struggling.

"As we've come out of Covid and people have wanted to invest more - which is a great thing - we're all competing for the same technical skills. So there's a definite issue there."

However, she said all services across the council had a plan to ensure they had "the capacity and the capability to deliver the services they need to", reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Councillor Pandor added: "We have to continue delivering and, at the same time, put the front-line staff back in who can actually respond to residents. On the back of that demand is increasing and resources are diminishing.

"We are competing within an already shrinking market with other local authorities."

Council officers have previously said the authority could not compete with the private sector where salaries were higher but it was working to retain existing staff as well as recruit new workers.