Derbyshire County Council has laid out proposals to save £157m by 2018 saying ‘unrelenting’ government cuts will lead to the closure of some services.

The council said it is facing the toughest cuts in the council's history, which could lead to 2,000 fewer council jobs over the next three years. It hopes the job losses - which are in addition to the 1,600 announced last year - will be found by voluntary redundancy, early retirement or not replacing staff who leave.

The council’s cabinet will meet 15 July to discuss proposals to reduce its budget by nearly £70m over the next three years

Leader of Derbyshire County Council, Cllr Anne Western, said: ‘In 2010, the Government told us these cuts would last for five years. With every year that has passed since yet, the cuts have got deeper and stretch further into the future. We need to be absolutely clear - we do not want to make these unrelenting cuts which will affect services local people rely on. The Government has left us no choice and we are having to think the unthinkable. Its budget reductions mean we have to cut our spending on local services by more than a third.

‘We're laying our cards on the table because we want local people to understand the scale of what we're dealing with and this is what we need to do to balance the books over the next three years.

‘We're doing all we can to protect services from cuts by continually looking for new and better ways of doing things and if we can avoid making some of these cuts further down the road then we will.’

The proposals include increasing the level at which people qualify for adult care services, closing up to 23 children’s centres, removing school crossing patrols, gritting fewer roads, reducing the budget for housing related support services and reducing funding for libraries.

The council will also look to save £2m by reducing the number of senior managers and developing more shared services with district and borough councils.