A THOUSAND jobs have gone at Blackburn with Darwen Council as a result of £33million budget cuts.

But council bosses now hope there will be no more large scale redundancies.

The figures were announced by Councillor Andy Kay at a consultation meeting on council spending.

Coun Kay, executive member for resources, said: “The workforce has reduced by around 1,000.

“Compulsory redundancies were kept to a minimum through early retirement and voluntary redundancies.

“We are not anticipating further large scale redundancies this year, but some can’t be ruled out and people will leave as short term contracts come to an end.”

Around 100 of the total reduncancies were compul-sory, with all affected paid a maximum of 30 weeks’ pay in severance.

In total there are now 8,000 people working for the council, including teaching staff.

Councillor Kay said this year another £6million cuts would need to be made as part of a two-year deal made with central Government.

He said: “We expect the next two years to be worse again, but there are no concrete plans from the Government.

“Some services will have to cease in the next two years, but we have no idea what they will be yet.

“It’s up to the Government to tell us what we need to do.”

East Lancashire is among the worst-hit areas by Government-imposed cuts.

Kate Hollern, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Labour leader, said wealther parts of the country, including Oxfordshire and Dorset, had fared much better.