Scottish Borders Council approves 176 job losses

About 600 council staff applied for voluntary redundancy out of a workforce of about 5,800

Scottish Borders Council has accepted 176 requests for voluntary redundancy from its workforce.

The council said the move would save it £3.5m annually and make a "significant contribution" towards the financial challenges it was facing.

About 600 staff had applied for voluntary severance or early retirement out of a workforce of about 5,800.

The agreed redundancies include 50 teachers and 41 technical services staff.

Council leader David Parker said: "The voluntary severance scheme that has been approved is a very important tool to help the council achieve savings in a difficult financial climate.

"Once we have paid the one-off costs, SBC will save £3.5m annually. This is a significant contribution towards the financial challenges that we face and it allows us to reduce costs in a voluntary way whilst being able to maintain frontline services."

He added: "This represents good value for money and will mean we can avoid making other more painful, difficult financial decisions."

Last November, the authority agreed plans to cut £6.2m from its spending.

Since then it has agreed a range of other measures, including reducing cleaning in council offices and schools, trimming the amount in the budget for VisitScotland, and switching off all heating in council offices over the summer months.