Councils staffing levels fall by 13 per cent (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Councils staffing levels fall by 13 per cent

6:56pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News

The number of staff employed by councils in the region has fallen by 13 per cent since the general election in 2010, according to new figures.

Union GMB has highlighted the official data, which shows a drop of 31,800 workers from the first quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2012.

This is across the 22 local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, of which Bradford was 12th, having lost 1,398 members of staff during that period, or 6.3 per cent.

The biggest drop occurred at North Yorkshire County Council, with 4,427 employees leaving the authority, or 16.1 per cent. Next highest was Leeds Council with the number of staff down by 3,627 or 10.4 per cent.

Most of these are job losses have arise from freezing vacancies, redundancies and natural wastage as a result of budget cuts. Some of the fall in numbers arises due to movement between public and private sectors, like when schools become academies.

Tim Roache, GMB regional secretary, said: "The terrible extent of the cuts that the Tory/Liberal government has imposed on local authorities is plain to see in these new statistics.”