CALLS for a watchdog-style body to look into a controversial plan to make two directors redundant at County Hall have been rejected, sparking anger.

The county council’s Labour group wanted the authority’s scrutiny system to examine a move to axe Diane Tilley and Eddie Clarke.

The pair, who are responsible for regeneration and adult and community services respectively, are to leave as part of a bid to save £332,000 in the first year alone.

But the overview and scrutiny performance board chairman has waved away the request, on the basis the timetable is too congested to look at it.

Councillor Peter McDonald, leader of the county’s Labour group, said: “What we’re being told here is that there are more important things to look into than this. Frankly, I’m not very happy with that attitude.

“We’re just happy to forget about it, well I find that pretty damning.”

Coun Tom Wells, board chairman and deputy leader of the county’s Liberal Democrat group, said it would “cause a problem” to the timetable.

“The time-consuming aspect of this is in terms of officer time, and the preparation that must go into the subject so it can go to a meeting,” he said.

“We made a decision some time ago to cram in an awful lot of work over the next few months and it includes a lot of important issues, such as concessionary travel.”

Another reason why the call has been rejected is because the decision to approve the two redundancies was made at full council.

If it was referred to the scrutiny system, the redundancies would be debated before the resources scrutiny panel, a sub-committee of the board.

Coun Stephen Peters, who chairs the panel, said: “I agree with Tom on this.

“The decision has already been made and we can’t change it.

“You can scrutinise it all you want, but you can’t change what has been done.

“The council has got lots of challenges ahead and I’m sure the workforce will look different in five years’ time as to how it looks even now.”

Ms Tilley is leaving in September, while Mr Clarke is departing in 2013.