HYNDBURN Council has put a freeze on recruitment to prevent it going £750,000 into the red.

Vacancies will not be filled for the foreseeable future but the move has prompted union officials to consider preparing a report on staff stress.

The decision is the latest attempt to cut costs since the council announced it was facing a potential £1.8 million deficit if it didn't make savings.

This debt was created by a series of problems, including the works department making a loss of £500,000 last year, and a computer benefits errors which left the authority thinking it had £500,000 it didn't have.

Last week it was revealed the council had sent letters to all its staff asking them to reduce their working hours, an idea which received a cool response with a take-up of just 12 people.

The overspend has so far been cut to £750,000, and the council has also said it may sell some of its assets to raise the rest of the money.

Stephen Kenyon, the council's head of accountancy, told residents at a meeting of Accrington area council that with less than three months to the end of the financial year every cost and income would be examined.

"We started with £1.8 million and we have started chipping away at that," he said.

"We have done a freeze in recruitment. Any vacancies that arise are not being filled unless they are an absolute emergency.

"Generally we are cutting back on spending. We are at a point in the year where we are looking how much money we have got and how much we need to spend. We are doing a line by line review of the budget and deferring spending until next year or just not spending.

"We are reviewing some of the charges the authority makes, and our asset base. We are considering selling assets we no longer need. We are questioning everything we do. We have certainly got options available to us to close the remaining £750,000 gap."

Steve Watson, the council's Unison representative, said: "It's something the union is concerned about. We are keeping a very close eye on the vacancy freezes, and the union is contemplating doing a stress survey on staff to see if there is a subsequent knock-on effect.

"The union is suggesting to management that priority areas should be identified rather than job freezes across the board.

"At the moment the indication is that it's only until April but we will be keeping a close eye on it and will be asking questions should it continue."

Coun Leader Peter Britcliffe said: "It is absolutely vital to balance the budget but equally that we come up with a budget that is workable for next year.

"It is difficult to say how many people might leave from now until April as we cannot compare with last year because there was a reshuffle and a number of redundancies.

"But it is essential we balance the budget as the alternative doesn't bear thinking about. If we don't then the government auditors will come in and tell us what we can and can't do."

Deputy Labour leader David Myles backed the decision. He said: "We are not making anybody redundant. There are associated costs with redundancies because of payouts. It's a way of finding out how the system would cope and we are only talking about a few months. It's something I would agree to because nobody is being hurt by it and we have got to find these savings from somewhere."