COUNCIL chiefs in Worcester have been accused of trying to "hide" the truth over job cuts.

Councillor Chris Mitchell has urged senior managers at the city council to start talking plain English, saying he is concerned about their use of language.

It came during a debate in which finance officers used the word "churn" when referring to staff turnover.

As the Worcester News revealed earlier this month, 25 jobs are set to be scrapped over the next three years as part of a plan to save £2.2 million.

The cuts will save around £897,000 by 2019, with most of the losses due to come from the cleaner and greener department.

In recent weeks the council's top brass have insisted compulsory redundancies are very unlikely, saying natural wastage and voluntary exits should plug the entire gap.

Natural turnover per year is around 12 per cent of the workforce now, which equates to around 32 jobs.

Cllr Mitchell, a Conservative who had a stint as deputy leader of the city council last year, said: "What this council will actually be doing is employing 25 fewer people.

"We need to be clear about that, it's not 'churn', it is redundancies, we are getting rid of jobs.

"I don't like the use of language because we seem to be hiding the fact that we're getting rid of people.

"We'll have 25 less people working here because we're getting rid of jobs, we need to clear about that and not hide it."

He was told by council bosses that they were trying to emphasise the fact that compulsory redundancies were very unlikely.

Sheena Ramsey, the managing director, said: "What we're trying to say is that because of the level of turnover, managing this process is slightly easier.

"Because while we may lose people where we don't want to lose them, we think we can manage this properly - the context to losing these posts is to manage it the best we can."

During the debate, in a meeting of the performance, management and budget scrutiny committee, she also said staff had come up with more than 80 savings proposals during recent in-house talks.

"That is a great testimony to the staff and their willingness to get involved," she said.

She also said the council must resist losing any "critical" staff during the process.

The cuts will mean by 2019 more than 10 per cent of the workforce will be gone.

Under the proposals, eight full-time equivalent (FTE) roles will go in the 2017/18 financial year starting this April, although four are currently vacant.

Sixteen FTE jobs will then go in 2018/19 and one in 2019/20.