Cornwall Council says it has to cut 10% from its workforce wage bill – but the plans have come under fire from opposition councillors who say that it is a “knee jerk reaction” from the Conservative administration.

An email was sent out to staff and councillors yesterday warning that compulsory redundancies would be “unavoidable” as the council tries to slice £18million from its £200m a year wage bill.

Conservative council leader Linda Taylor told councillors “we simply must reduce the cost base of the Council quite significantly”.

She said the cuts would need to take place by the end of the current financial year.

Cllr Taylor added: “Year on year we are spending more money than we have coming in. We have looked at all of our expenditure and know there are some difficult decisions to make.

“For next year, we are trying to reduce our base by £70m which equates to over 10% of our revenue budget. This will mean some very difficult decisions both in terms of the number of people who work for the council and for the number and size of contracts we have with suppliers.”

In announcing the plans to cut the amount of money spent on its workforce the council said that it would be starting consultation with staff and unions next month.

The reductions would be made by continuing a recruitment freeze, deleting vacancies, and inviting staff to take voluntary redundancy, said Cllr Taylor.

“At this stage we are not able to translate the £18m workforce budget reduction figure into a defined number of roles, as a lot will depend on how the reductions are made and the types of staff that will be impacted, and how much of the reduction can be made through removing vacancies.”

Responding to the announcement Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors have criticised the approach being taken.

Jayne Kirkham, leader of the Labour group at County Hall, said: “We have seen no budget yet and there appears to be no coherent restructuring plan. Just a knee jerk response from the Conservative administration to cut everything that can be to the bone.

“Our staff at Cornwall Council are our biggest asset and we have a responsibility to Cornwall to carry out our statutory functions.

“This is a huge decision to reduce staff by 10% in year, that appears to have been taken with no real strategy behind it and with no consultation yet with members, staff or unions.

“Of course the elephant in the room is the continued cuts to local government funding by this Conservative government. Perhaps our Conservative council should be spending their energies pushing them for better funding to provide our services.

“The chancellor’s budget and spending review next week must give a longer term, sustainable funding solution for local government.”

And Lib Dem councillor Andrew George said: “Last year the Conservatives clapped in support of public servants. Now they want to sack them. They didn’t disclose this in their manifesto when they wanted votes in May. Despite the massive financial pressures caused by the 80% cut in central Government grant since the Conservatives took control in 2015 the previous administration of Independents and Liberal Democrats had no plans to sack staff or close leisure centres.

“While the Conservatives were happy enough to hand out over £104m of Cornwall’s covid aid to second homers who don’t need or deserve it, they aren’t prepared to fight to protect essential public servants.

“Morale will be at rock bottom. This is dreadful news.”