Nottinghamshire County Council announces extra £12m cuts

An extra £12m of budget cuts for the next two years has been announced by Nottinghamshire County Council.

It follows an announcement last year that 2,500 redundancies would have to be made to help achieve savings of £154m by 2014.

The Conservative-controlled council said increased demand for social care services meant it had to make further savings from other departments.

The union Unison said the additional savings would mean more job losses.

As part of the overall job cuts programme, the council has said it will list up to 382 posts on Wednesday which could be reduced.

It will not be known until the end of the consultation period in January how many of these will be compulsory redundancies.

The authority said it was on course to make the £87m savings it needs to make this year, half of which will be reinvested in frontline services for vulnerable children, adults and young people.

'Chuckle Brothers'

Councillor Reg Adair, cabinet member for finance and property, said: "Prudent financial management and taking a longer-term view have put us in a strong position.

"We continue to invest funds to improve the condition of our roads and schools and new buildings such as libraries and extra-care housing."

Andy Belfield, from Unison, said: "These are difficult times. On the one hand councils like Nottingham City Council are trying to calmly weather the storm.

"On the other you have [council leader] Kay Cutts and Nottinghamshire County Council who increasingly resemble the Chuckle Brothers."

Proposed savings measures include targeting its Connexions careers advice service at vulnerable young people - which would save £1m by 2014.