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77 Posts Lost at Darlington Council; Terms and Conditions Under Threat

The Northern Echo reports that Labour-controlled Darlington Borough Council has announced a council tax freeze and budget cuts.

77 posts are to go and terms and conditions are under threat, specifically overtime payments and essential car user allowance. The full cabinet report states that "18 of the posts are vacant, therefore there are potentially 59 redundancies. However, as the business model is implemented this number may increase."

The council is trying to save £4.7M from its budget, and deliver a council tax freeze this year, followed by 1% and 2% in the following two years. The council has opened a public consultation on the budget proposals. The deadline for comments is Friday 5th February 2010.

Darlington Borough Council is a unitary authority employing over 4,000 staff, spends about £100M and has a general fund reserve of £9.7M (total reserves £21M)