Plans to slash £1.6 million of  Sandwell Council funding has been approved with fears of 90 job losses if further cuts are made to spending plans.

The 10 per cent cuts from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) will see a pilot school meals project shelved and a contract with Sandwell College terminated.

And it has been revealed how 90 people could lose their jobs if the rest of the budget is cut in March next year. Gifted and talented athletes in Sandwell are also set to miss out on grant cash.

Money will be pulled from other schemes, including vital projects to fight crime and improve public health.

And despite high levels of unemployment across the borough, the largest share of the cash, £696,000, will be taken from a programme run with Sandwell Council to get people back into jobs.

The £1.6 million represents 10 per cent of the council’s Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) allocation.

Sandwell Council’s finance chief warned that although no jobs will be lost through this round of cuts, up to 90 could go if the WNF is scrapped completely in March.

Workers at risk include council staff, health and PCT workers, police employees and education staff.

The council cancelled £1 million of planned projects to make the savings, keeping  £696,000 to meet possible redundancy costs.

Councillor Steve Eling, cabinet member for strategic resources, said: “The bottom line is the Government said we had to make a 10 per cent cut to our budget.

“We opted not to cut cash from schemes that are up and running, but to take it from projects we had planned to fund.

“It will be November or December before we find out whether Working Neighbourhood Funds will be abolished next year. If that happens we could be looking at around 90 job losses”.

Other schemes that will have funding pulled include community grants, housing improvements and cycling programmes. Biggest losers are employment schemes, road safety projects and young people’s activities.