Senior leadership posts at Cheshire East Council are being temporarily left vacant as the authority faces ‘significant financial pressures’.
As part of proposals to cut costs within its 2024-25 budget, the local authority has proposed reducing spending on ‘leadership, supervision and associated support costs within corporate services’, with potential savings of £500,000.
Already, ‘savings are being achieved through temporarily leaving senior leadership posts vacant’, the consultation survey for the budget says.
The council has also already made savings by freezing recruitment, except for jobs which are statutory or are funded by direct income; opening mutually agreed resignation and early retirement schemes, and encouraging staff to reduce their working hours or purchase annual leave, according to the online survey.
It also proposes eliminating agency spending ‘as far as possible’ and reducing overtime or additional hours payments. It acknowledged that the impact of this ‘may reduce response times or flexibility in some areas’.
Other proposals include reducing service levels in highways maintenance and cutting the number of household waste recycling centres.
The decision to approve the budget will be taken on 27 February.
