Cuts start to bite as 52 council jobs go in Dudley (From Halesowen News)

Cuts start to bite as 52 council jobs go in Dudley

2:25pm Wednesday 25th May 2011 in News

THE real pain of public sector spending cuts began to bite after Dudley Council approved 52 compulsory redundancies.

The authority is feeling the squeeze of cuts in grants from central government and has to loose more than 400 jobs in the current financial year to help save £22 million, reducing their spending to £241.5 million.

Around 800 jobs will go by March 2014 as cuts hit all departments although council bosses say they are trying to soften the blow.

Council leader Councillor Les Jones, said: “Cabinet agreed to 52 compulsory redundancies across the council. However, we are continuing to work extremely hard to reduce this number through redeployment and voluntary redundancy.

"We will have a clearer idea on numbers of staff by the middle of July after these ongoing processes are complete. Many of those posts are within the children’s services and adult, community and housing directorates.”