SWINDON Council has not ruled out making redundancies following calls to axe up to 400 of its workers.

Tory councillor Owen Lister wants the local authority to shed at least five per cent of its 8,000 workers to prevent further hikes in council tax.

And trade union Unison is resigned to the fact that there will be job losses because the council is carrying out a "robust" budget review to stave off a predicted £2.6 million overspend during this financial year.

Each department will be put under the microscope to see if they can be run more efficiently.

This, said Coun Lister, who has re-named the council 'Swindon Borough Charity' because of his beliefs that it employs too many people, will be an ideal time to make cuts.

"There are nine, ten or eleven layers of management in some departments which is just too much," said Coun Lister, who represents the Abbey Meads ward.

"I say this because I believe councillors have a responsibility to the rate payer. I think the council has been allowed to forget about this for too long.

"How else can you account for the fact that there has been a 42 per cent increase in the rate in the last three years."

While canvassing houses in the Swindon area, Coun Lister said he was appalled to find many elderly people who were going without heating because they simply could not afford it.

"Too many elderly people are living on a low income because rate increases have been much higher than pension increases," he said.

"The public has every reason to expect a certain level of services to be provided by the council. Then it has to see what thrills it can provide.

"But for years there has been too many thrills and not enough attention paid to core services."

Gavin Jones, the council's director of cultural change, confirmed that the local authority was going through a "programme of change".

"It is far too early to say if the outcome of this will have an impact on jobs," he said.

And the council's deputy leader Ian Dobie (Con, Haydon Wick) admitted some departments needed to be sharpened up but did not think it was appropriate to comment about predicted job losses.

But Lib Dem councillor Wendy Johnson said there was an alternative to making redundancies.

"If it is found that a post is redundant than that must be dealt with," she said. "But we have a duty as a good employer to look at how we can re-deploy them rather than dismiss them."

Roger Averies, principal trade union representative for council workers, is expecting to hear about the council's plans within the next three weeks and is asking for up dates every day.

He does not expect redundancies among the frontline staff.

"There are efficiency savings going on," said Mr Averies.

"Unfortunately, we accept there will be job losses but re-deployment will be looked at first."

Any redundancies will come on top of the 400 jobs announced by the BMW-owned Swindon Pressing Ltd in Stratton this month.

Ben Payne