LANCASHIRE County Council leader Jenny Mein has rejected claims the authority’s attempts to lose 2,500 staff through voluntary redundancy are doomed to fail.

A union official has claimed compulsory job losses are inevitable.

So far only 300 people have agreed terms to leave, with another 835 expressing an interest.

Les Parker from the Unite union said: “It is inevitably going to end in compulsory redundancies.

“It might be early days, but the figures add up to only one thing – they are going to fall a long way short of their target.”

Coun Mein said:“The reality of the severe cuts made by central Government is that we have to find £300 million savings by March 2017.

“The council simply cannot make these savings without significant reductions both in the services it provides and in the number of people it employs.

“We are in the early stages of a radical transformation of the county council which will mean it becomes a smaller organisation.

“We have been talking with the unions and will continue to do so.

“That includes doing everything that we can to avoid compulsory redundancies.”