THE council says employee savings will be “unavoidable” in the next five years.

West Dunbartonshire Council bosses have forecast a continuing funding gap until 2022, plus the fact more than half of their general fund costs are from staff, means they have to plan to reduce employees.

In a report to members of the corporate services committee, the council plans to aim for savings through voluntary turnover, redeploy staff to other departments where possible, promote themselves more to compete in the labour market, as well as boosting their “healthy, engaged workforce”.

A report states: “An assumption has been made, in line with the council’s long-term financial strategy, that at least 3 per cent year-on-year savings will be required over the lifetime of the five-year workforce plan.

“An assumption has also been made that existing demand for services can be reduced or delivered more efficiently as a result of internal process improvement work such as has been achieved to date through the creation of the corporate administration service; and that additional or changing demands for services (beyond those already anticipated, such as the expansion of early years provision) will be minimal in order that they are manageable within available resources.”

There was a total of more than 6,000 employees at the council as of April 1, 2017. That has shrunk by 2 per cent since the previous year. Nearly three quarters of the workforce are women and more than one in 10 of all employees are aged over 60 and will be approaching retirement.