SENIOR council officers are set to lose their jobs as Warrington Borough Council prepares to tighten its belt during “unprecedented times.”
A number of council employees have contacted warrington-worldwide expressing fears for their futures as heads are set to roll as part of on going cost-cutting exercise to plug a £30 million black hole in the council coffers.
Some claim moral at the town hall is “at an all time low” and those not facing redundancy this time round say they are already looking for pastures new.
The council say “no decisions have yet been made” but a number of employees have received letters effectively terminating their existing contracts of employment.
Some will be given the opportunity to apply for other positions at the town hall but a significant number are facing redundancy, something rarely seen in the public sector.
Council leader Ian Marks (pictured) is aware of the concerns of some employees but says the council is facing “unprecedented times.”
He added: “Many organisations are facing challenging times and the council, like so many others up and down the country, is no different.
“Quite rightly, there is a need for us to look at our structures and services and develop new ways of working as we modernise, transform, and redesign the way we deliver those services.
“This need for change has consequences for our workforce and I can confirm that we are currently in the formal stages of consultation with those staff that may be affected and no decisions have yet been made.”
It is believed the first round of redundancies will be confirmed by a meeting of the full council on March 1 but cuts could be ongoing for at least another two years.
The council is also planning other efficiency savings on top of the job losses, including closing recycling centres, cutting back on library opening hours, reducing funding for swimmers and even turning out street lights are part of multi-million-pound council savings.
6 Comments
All these cut backs and the same amount of work needs to be done???? Will we get mulitvitamins??
The Councils "vision" and "aims and objectives" are most unrealistic, almost laughable. For those who take note and want to provide a good quality service, these aims and objectives and cut backs have put immense pressure on those who really do care and have stayed committed for many years. We feel very let down, moral is not low in "some" area's, it's low everywhere, WAKE UP!!!!!! Or you'll lose the ones you want and indeed need to keep……………………………….. as you already are doing.
What a shambles!!!! INCOMPETENCE RULES!!!!!!!!
On the one hand, making cutbacks by reducing services, and on the other wasting money on consultants, visions and un-necessary items like glossy brochures and traffic lights.
I wonder who will be the first party to blame the others for this pathetic mess.
But at the end of the day, the blame lies with the Residents for putting up with it.
No surprise, this news from the WBC is just confirming what everyone already knew, comments on the WWW forum have known about these issues for sometime now, just feel sorry for the hardworking Council employees who are or in the threat of losing their jobs or having a cut in wages to subsidise bad decisions made by national/local governments and of course the wonderful hardworking irreplaceable bankers.
i’d like to welcome WBC to the real world of living within your means, no pay rises, redundancies etc which the private sector has been enduring for the last two years or so.
Perhaps if the council tax didnt got to paying such gold plated pensions then i might have more sympathy.
The majority of employees work very hard and conscientiously for WBC and the public in general and get undeserved abuse in the press, many employees get paid just above the minimum wage, unfortunately, it does seems the lower paid are the first to lose their jobs while the higher paid keep on getting higher pay. WBC staff for years have been paid less then the national average of those who work in the private sector doing the same kind of work, those of you who do work in the private sector and got high percentage wage increases weren’t moaning then, now the public sector, e.g. NHS, Local Government, Education etc, etc are being made the scapegoat to cover for the scandalous losses made by the few in the banking sector or should that be the gambling sector? The only problem with cutbacks is that we will all suffer.
Pushy Cat, the general feeling of many who comment on the news items here think we deserve to have all we get as employee's of the Council so a big thanks for your words/comments.
Re my pension, there is a lot of hot air about pensions from many who do not know the facts. I've paid in a substantial contribution to date towards my pension as do many in the private sector either privately or through work. I dont know for sure that by the time I'm due what ever amount that it will be there just the same as private sector workers. We're not stupid, all this "welcome to the real world" is sooo old, we know what the real world is, we deal and try to mend it every day we work. It's been many many years since anyone working for the Council used to term "job for life", and none of us have felt valued or secure for years and I mean years, it's not just a recent feeling. A lot of us care about our community and the people in it and rather than moan on and on about it want to DO something and make a contribution, even if thats contributing towards changing things for the better such as with the Council.
There are many who will be moaning come the day that they have to survive on state pension ( if it exists by then) who ( exculding those who are genuine) have taken and taken from the state and never contributed to it in any way apart from gas emissions………………………………………….. As I've said many times before, if you don't like the Council and how its run ( by the real people working there) have a go yourselves!
And lastly thanks to all of you who don't know or appreciate what I and many of us do every day we come into work to try to change and improve peoples lives, cheers. I'm just as frustrated if not more regarding the management of the Council but I'm still getting on with it and trying my best, so great, thanks.