UNION leaders in Worcestershire have put more pressure on council chiefs by warning them away from any more staff cuts.

As the Worcester News recently reported, the county council wants to save an extra £20 million from its spending by 2014/15.

The council is already shedding £70 million from the budget within that timescale, but is drawing up plans to increase that to £90 million.

Jim Price, Unison’s county council branch secretary, said: “At the end of the day, we don’t want to see any more staff cuts.”

Under the current cuts project, known as BOLD (Better Outcomes Leaner Delivery), 857 roles have been earmarked to go between 2010-2014.

About 300 have gone already, which includes 170 compulsory redundancies. Councillor Adrian Hardman, leader of the council, has pledged to protect frontline services, but has refused to rule out further job cuts to meet the savings target.

The reason why the BOLD target is being changed is because the council is fearing the worst in terms of future Government grant cuts.

This year it received £99.6 million, but that was 7.8 million down on the previous year and ministers are briefing town halls that worse may be to come.

People are being urged to get involved by having their say on where savings will come from, visit worcestershire.gov.uk/suggestions