Wiltshire Council’s cabinet has approved plans to axe 340 full-time posts which the authority said were needed to make minimum savings of £4million in staffing costs this year.

Coun Stuart Wheeler, cabinet member for human resources, on the Conservative-led authority, said all the redundancies would be voluntary although council directors could veto any applications from staff in certain departments such as social care and public health.

He said: “It has been discussed by the unions and they are enthusiastic about doing it on a truly voluntary basis.”

Since 2010 the council has made 630 posts redundant, resulting in savings of £23m. This year the council has to save £27m following a cut in Government funding.

Lib Dem leader Coun Jon Hubbard said at the cabinet meeting in Chippenham on Tuesday: “I’m becoming increasingly concerned about how we can remove so many jobs from an organisation without impacting on frontline services. I do appreciate the challenges coming down from the Government, but I’m concerned at the scale of cuts we are seeing.”Coun Jane Scott, council leader, said: “I’m more content that we are not making anyone redundant non-voluntarily. I’m pleased we are asking people who want to leave.

“In our business plan for the last four years we said 1,200 posts would be lost, but we are nowhere near that. At the end of this round it will be more like 850.

“I would challenge anybody to say where we have stopped a frontline service that’s important to people out there.”

Coun Scott said Coun Hubb-ard’s suggestion of switching some of the county’s street lights to LED to save £200,000 would be considered in next year’s budget.

Consultation over voluntary redundancy begins on June 17 and runs for six weeks.