Leicestershire County Council budget: Further 500 posts could go

Leicestershire County Council's latest cost-cutting proposals are set to be approved on 17 February

Frontline services will come under extreme pressure if Leicestershire County Council's budget plans go ahead, a union has said.

In its latest proposal, the Conservative-led authority said £78m needed to be saved by 2020 and a further 500 posts cut.

Deputy Leader Byron Rhodes said he hoped most of the posts would be lost through "natural wastage".

UNISON said to think cuts would not affect services was "ridiculous".

Keith Libetta, from UNISON, said: "We've already lost 900 people from the organisation and to think we can make another 500 cuts without impacting on services is just ridiculous."

'Very tough'

The county council has been forced to come up with a plan to save £110m, between 2015 and 2020, due to government cuts.

"We'll have to take tough decisions such as cuts to early help and public health services and rural bus subsidies, if we are to deliver the savings that we need - and next year will be very tough indeed," said Mr Rhodes.

Plans also include a council tax rise of 3.99% per year, which means by 2020, householders would pay almost 17% more than this year.

"People leave as part of natural wastage, others volunteer to take redundancy or early retirement, so not too many will be made redundant - but there will be some," said Mr Rhodes.

He added the draft saving plan was the "most challenging the council has faced for a generation".

Proposals are set to be approved in February.

Leicestershire County Council budget summary

• 2010 to 2015: Savings of £103m and 900 jobs cut

• 2015 to 2020: Needs to save £110m and axe 500 full-time equivalent posts

• 2015/2016: On track to save £32m of the £110m

• 2016 to 2020: The authority still needs to save £78m

• 2016/17: It must save £26m of the £78m

• By 2020: The council has identified £59m, leaving £19m still to be found

• Total between 2010 and 2020: Savings of £213m and 1,400 job losses