Somerset Council has accepted 201 redundancy applications, which it said would save more than £8m a year.
It is the first part of the council’s plans to cut £40m from its annual pay bill by reducing its total staff, including senior directors, by 25%.
The 201 voluntary redundancies will cost £12.8m and councillors have been recommended to approve the 49 redundancies where costs will exceed £100,000.
Some 372 voluntary redundancy applications were received.
Although it was only launched as a unitary in April last year, Somerset had declared a financial emergency by November.
Council leader Bill Revans said: ‘We had to make many difficult and heartbreaking decisions to set our budget this year, and that included plans for a top-to-bottom restructure of our council.
‘This is the first step and we know there will be further changes and reductions in staff numbers coming through over the next 12 months as we look to find over £40m of savings from our pay bill.’
