Confidential plans to restructure the top management at Bradford Council are understood to save the authority no more than £20,000 a year.

And, after redundancy payouts are taken into account, it could take a minimum of five years for the benefit to be felt.

The Telegraph & Argus understands that the proposed shake-up among senior managers at the authority would see:

* the creation of a new assistant chief executive role as a strategic directorship goes

* an assistant director role being upgraded to strategic director level

* a number of other assistant directorships being replaced with different job descriptions.

The net effect is likely to involve the reduction of one assistant director, and is expected to save between £10,000 and £20,000 a year in wages. But with a six-figure payout expected in redundancy money, no immediate savings would be felt for a number of years.

A report detailing the further job losses will be discussed behind closed doors again today by members of the authority’s corporate overview and scrutiny committee, after approval by the executive last month.

Councillor Simon Cooke, the Tory group deputy leader and member of the overview and scrutiny committee, has called in the decision for further discussion.

He told the T&A: “I feel that these kind of decisions merit further scrutiny and I will be asking questions of the chief executive to help make sure the Council makes the right decision.”

Councillor Howard Middleton, the Liberal Democrat group chief whip and member of the committee, said: “The report itself asks more questions than it answers and other options don’t appear to have been considered.”

Councillor David Green, leader of the Council, said: “The Council has to continue to change in order to increase our effectiveness in supporting our local economy and improving services, at a time of unprecedented cuts in public sector funding and increasing demand for services. We therefore agreed a senior management restructure, after consultation with the trade unions and affected staff.

“The Council has saved £10 million over the last year by significantly reducing management costs.”

The Council’s chief executive Tony Reeves, said: “At the time of the last review of senior management in 2010 it was envisaged that a further review would need to take place in 2012, following a period of intensive national change in the public sector, including significant reductions in funding.

“The senior management restructure will enable the Council to increase its efficiency, to explore and develop new models of service delivery.”