AROUND 15 jobs will be lost in a major shake up getting underway at Eastbourne Borough Council as part of a bid to save £1.5 million.
A new staff structure will be introduced by April next year as part of a new way of delivering key services at the authority.
Council bosses say the review, called the Future Model, will modernise how customers interact with the authority and help improve customer service.
It will allow people to use the internet and other self-service technologies to access a wide range of services, often out of office hours, and there will also be a new focus on those who wish to meet and speak directly to council staff, added council bosses.
The model is the latest step in a wider plan by the council to transform the authority which began with a reduction in the size of the senior management team and a new approach to focusing on the needs of customers.
This was followed by the council’s Agile Working programme to reduce costs by moving staff from former offices at 66-68 Grove Road to 1 Grove Road.
The council hopes the Model, in its first phase, will deliver efficiency savings of more than £500,000 per year over three years, starting in 2013/14.
Around 15 jobs will be lost and a new staff structure will be introduced by April 2013.
The programme as a whole will eventually deliver total savings of between £1.5m and £1.6m.
Council leader David Tutt said, “The Future Model is the next step in our on-going plan to be a more customer-focused local authority, one which strives to say yes to our customers rather than no.
“While we regret any job losses we will seek to achieve these with the least number of redundancies possible and do our best to support anyone who does need to leave council employment to find new career opportunities.”
At a council cabinet meeting on Wednesday night members approved the Future Model.
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