Eight bosses go at Dudley Council in new stage of £1m cost cutting plan

Senior director roles at the council are being cut from 22 to 11 as part of the savings scheme.

Five director and 17 assistant director positions are being removed and replaced with three strategic directors and eight chief officer posts.

Dudley Council leader, Councillor Pete Lowe, said: "We are in the final stages of this tier of the corporate restructure and have welcomed a few new faces to the authority who share our ambition to make this leaner and more efficient than ever before.

"Two of the three strategic directors are now in place with an appointment to the third being made over the next few weeks and we are currently recruiting for a chief officer for children's services which we hope to agree soon.

"There have been eight redundancies agreed as part of this restructure and there are currently a further three staff at risk of redundancy."

The move had come under fire from opposition councillors concerned about the rise in salaries for new roles - but leaders said the directors and officers would have larger remits.

Councillor Lowe previously said the changes were not just a one-off saving. He said it will be on-going, year-on-year and that it would help to save the authority £1m each year.

The council needs to make savings of £22.9m in 2015/16, moving up to £25.3m by 2016/17 and £27.4m by 2017/18.

But the council has warned it faces a deficit of approaching £30m by 2017/18 if additional savings are not found. More than 130 jobs will be axed by the council.

The council is looking to make 134 voluntary and two compulsory redundancies in 2015/16. Council leaders said they had worked to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.

It follows the loss of more than 700 posts during the previous four years.

The budget proposals for 2015/16 have included a shake-up of Dudley youth services to save £200,000. Burial fees have also been increased in a move expected to bring in £520,000 in the next three years.

Other cost-cutting proposals include plans to turn off some street lights after midnight, saving £100,000 by 2018.

But proposals to axe free transport for children with special needs in Dudley were shelved following objections from concerned parents.