Hundreds of West Sussex County Council jobs to go in a bid to save millions

The authority needs to make savings, so a 'significant number' of jobs will have to go, with redundancies likely to run into the hundreds. The planned shake-up will see the budget cut over the next two years.

This is on top of 40m annual savings already achieved in the past three years which have seen some 400 posts go.

County Hall is making no secret of the fact the 50m figure could rise further in coming years '“ it has already gone up from 35m '“ because of the massive squeeze on public sector finances.

Chief executive Mark Hammond said the aim was to do things better and cheaper.

"We will do everything we can to deliver better services, and make them more accessible, but financial pressure on the public sector means this will be very difficult to achieve," he warned.

"There will be some areas where we will have to trim back, which is what people would expect."

He added: "We have a successful programme, and a lot of exciting plans to improve services, but some will be changed, and changing services can be almost as difficult as cutting them."

Explaining some of the financial pressures already faced by the county council, Mr Hammond said it received government grants of 124 per resident, compared with a county average of about 190, and more than 200 in neighbouring East Sussex.

If West Sussex residents received the county average, this would provide about 55m more, either to provide services or offset council tax increases.

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