A COUNCIL is to spend £7million on redundancies this year – but bosses say there could be fewer job losses than feared.

Cash-strapped Blackburn with Darwen Council said it estimated the cost of shedding staff, including payoffs, in 2010/11 to be ‘in excess of £7milion’.

But the councillor in charge of finances said his forecast on the number of jobs that would go had been scaled back.

Coun Andy Kay would not confirm his latest estimate, but said it would be lower than the 1,000 announced when the council set its budget in March.

He said: “We have had real co-operation from unions and staff.

"We have been able to use voluntary redundancies and retirements to manage it.

“I’m not prepared to say how many it will be, but we don’t think it will be as many as expected.”

A cost-saving ‘hit squad’ has been put together to help each department hit its cuts target.

Last month unions voted to limit compulsory redundancies by offering to take four days’ unpaid leave a year for the next three years.