27 January 2011 Last updated at 08:59 ET

Windsor and Maidenhead council announces 70 posts cut

About 70 jobs at a Berkshire council are to be axed as part of budget cuts.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead said no front-line services would be affected but a number of savings had to be made.

The Conservative-led local authority has also announced a £5 reduction in council tax for those living in Band D properties over the next year.

Civic chiefs said the reduction was made possible due to it making £9m worth of savings over the past year.

Council leader David Burbage said the council was in the "midst of tough times" against a backdrop of financial difficulties nationally.

"However, we have worked hard to keep redundancies to the absolute minimum," he said.

We will be trying our best to achieve the reductions through voluntary means wherever possible and looking to redeploy staff affected to other necessary council posts that need filling.

"What we are trying to do is to make the council more efficient.

"If we have got a team of say nine, and we can by improving our business process make it work with eight, clearly the person who is affected will need to find alternative employment."