Further job cuts at the county council

The council previously said 2,000 jobs would have to go by April 2015 in order to save £100m following government spending cuts.

The latest announcement comes after the authority revealed it needs to continue making massive savings of £164m through to 2017.

This is because the authority is expected to get less money from the Government than initially hoped, with Whitehall keeping a tight rein on spending as the recession continues.

The councillor in charge of finance John Harrison said job cuts needed to rise to 3,300 and he could not rule out privatising some council services.

“The latest job losses need to be put into perspective,” he said.

“They only account for four per cent of the workforce and the number of compulsory redundancies will be very few.

“But nevertheless we regret having to do that.”

Opposition leader Anne Western said services were “bound to be affected.”