Restructuring decisions at Pendle Council approved with fewer redundancies

Whilst the full Council agreed the new management structure at its last meeting, it delegated final decisions to group leaders following a full consultation exercise with trade unions and staff.

Excellent progress in reducing the number of compulsory redundancies has been made, reducing the original number of 76 posts to 23 posts through a mixture of deleting vacant posts, retirements, voluntary redundancies, job shares and flexible working arrangements. 

The majority of these redundancies relate to the ending of funding regimes which the Council can do little about.

Importantly, whilst the loss of funding regimes was regretted by all group leaders, a great deal of progress has been made in protecting the Council's core service provision. 

The focus on increasing efficiency and productivity and reducing the cost of management and administration have been key themes in the restructuring exercise. 

This, along with the regrouping of services and reducing accommodation costs, will save council tax payers around £600,000 in 2011/12.Councillor Blomeley said: "The restructuring exercise has been a genuine consultative process and I thank the trade unions and staff for their participation and co-operation."

Councillor David said: "I am pleased that the Council's services have been protected as far as possible. I predict that there will be less impact in Pendle than in many other neighbouring authorities."

Councillor Iqbal added: "I am particularly pleased that the number of redundancies is so low and that all the arrangements have been properly negotiated with the trade unions."