MORE jobs could be cut at Winchester City Council ahead of the crucial budget meeting next month.

A city council personnel committee will meet on February 8 to discuss and decide any further changes to jobs at the council, as part of a three-year plan to reduce the wage bill by 70 positions.

In the past year-and-a-half the council has cut 42 jobs but still need to find around £2m to balance the budget.

But the council came under criticism from Lib Dem opposition at a cabinet meeting last week over their approach to finding cost-cutting measures.

The meeting saw an end to a two-month period of consultation with businesses and parish councils to find suggestions to save money but Cllr Kelsie Learney, leader of the Lib Dems, said the consultation failed and criticised a paper updating the state of the budget.

She said: “This paper fails to spell out the actual financial position of the council. The consultation has been incredibly weak and in failing to put forward options we have limited our space to manoeuvre into next year.

“We are all aware that the largest part of this is the staff bill which has to be reduced. Staff consultations should have started months ago and failure to take action will mean that savings will not be made until well into the next financial year.”

But council leader Cllr George Beckett defended the council’s actions and said they were taken in more difficult circumstances than previous years.

He said: “I do not accept that we have not consulted properly. We have put forward our position clearly. Details of the staffing process will be going to the personnel committee before the budget is finalised.

“This is our third budget paper and we have been so open our opponents have been able to criticise us on a number of occasions. We will come to the council to debate a budget which balances.”

Cllr Keith Wood, portfolio holder for finance and estates, added: “We are seeking to fund savings of around £2m and that’s really quite a large slice and I’m disappointed if people cannot make suggestions without having all the details. We really hoped they would come forward with some new ideas if they had any.”