Councils, including Stoke on Trent, are planning to axe thousands of jobs in the latest cull of local authority posts because of the Government's spending cuts, a leading union has said.
The GMB said it had been told that Derbyshire County Council was planning up to 2,000 redundancies over the next four years and Leeds City Council was aiming to cut 1,000 jobs.
The news follows a wave of announcements in recent weeks that councils across the country are planning to make huge cuts in their workforce to make massive savings.
The Government has announced a cut in Derbyshire council's grant of around 28%, which means the authority will have to cut its spending by £84 million over the next four years, on top of the £10 million it had already planned, according to the GMB.
The GMB said later that between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs were under threat at Stoke on Trent council over the next four years as the authority looked to make savings of £100 million.
The Government has announced a reduction in the council's grant of around 28% which means it will have to find these savings from the non-teaching workforce of 9,200, according to the GMB.
Regional officer Colin Griffiths said: "Cuts of this magnitude will be devastating for services, jobs and the economy in Stoke-on-Trent.
"People in Stoke-on-Trent face cuts in the care services for the vulnerable, in the youth service, in museums galleries and libraries, and in services all across the council. The impact on the vulnerable and how this impacts at a human level has not been factored in by the Tory Liberal authors of these cuts."
