TWENTY-EIGHT posts are going to be slashed at Worcester City Council - alongside a dramatic cull in the use of consultants and agency staff.

More details emerged yesterday on the council's budget proposals for the next three years, with the Labour leadership aiming to save £2.2 million by 2019.

The suggestions include:

- The loss of 28 posts, slightly down on previous estimates of 32

- A reduction in the use of agency staff and consultants, which currently cost taxpayers' £600,000 a year

- Possible new contracts for staff so they work 35-hour weeks rather than 37, and inviting them to "buy" extra annual leave

- Better use of software to draw up better "route optimisation" for binmen, allowing them to collect rubbish quicker

- Replacing cash machines at car parks with 'pay on entry' barriers or automatic number plate recognition, resulting in less enforcement

The main service change proposals are not fixed on timescale, with more work needed to establish how and if they will work.

But the job loss figures are more certain, with eight full-time equivalent posts going in 2017/18, 16 being deleted in 2018/19 and one more position vanishing in 2018/19, saving £897,000 over the three years.

Managing director Sheena Ramsey yesterday insisted compulsory redundancies were unlikely, with natural wastage, voluntary redundancy and the deletion of empty posts expected to account for the whole figure.

"The prospect of compulsory redundancies are extremely unlikely, our turnover is 12 per cent now, which is around 32 posts," she said.

"Over this period of time we think this is manageable."

She also said the current bill for agency staff and consultants, which runs at around £600,000 a year, faces a cull so their hiring becomes “the exception” rather than a norm, although no firm target has been set.

But the spending has crept up in recent years, and is now expected to fall to a very low spend.

Of the eight positions going in 2017/18, four are currently vacant.

Middle management will face the biggest squeeze, shrinking by 13 per cent by 2019, with the front line staff reducing by nine per cent and senior bosses, eight per cent.

The job losses are from a total in-house workforce of 298 people (264 full-time equivalents).

Proposals like the 35-hour working week and options for buying leave need further talks with unions and staff consultation.

The overall savings requirement for 2017/18 is £550,000, with two special scrutiny meetings taking place this month - including one on Monday evening from 7pm at the Guildhall - to discuss it.

Yesterday Councillor Adrian Gregson, the city's Labour leader, took a swipe at the Government for forcing the authority into a "rearguard action".

"The facts are there, we've seen a 47 per cent reduction in our funding over the last 10, 12, 15 years," he said.

"But we are trying to be as open and transparent as possible."

In recent months all departments across the council have been asked to consider how they will cope with their funding at 80 per cent of what it is now by 2019, to match the requirement to save £2.2 million, taking the gross budget from £21 million to around £19 million.

The officer-led ideas have been put to the different political parties and more papers are being released today ahead of an initial scrutiny debate on Monday to firm up the spending cuts.

Some £1.3 million is expected to be pumped into a special ‘transformation’ budget to allow them to fund some of the changes, like modernising the car parks and using special software on bin collections.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, Tory group leader, said: “We remain concerned about the impact on services until we have seen more detail.”