NINE highly paid council workers are facing redundancy to save Essex County Council £800,000 a year.

The county council is one of the most top heavy authorities in the country with among the highest number of people earning £100,000 or more.

It is now going through a restructuring programme to make “management team savings”.

Chief executive Gavin Jones has decided to cut management at the authority which has, for years, claimed they paid so many people so much money to make sure they had and could keep the best talent.

Following the restructure at the top, many more redundancies could follow.

A spokesman from County Hall stated “a further restructure of the wider organisation is planned”.

Council leader David Finch said: “The new structure will see more emphasis put on to those commercial elements of the council which we will be reliant on over the coming years, and also digital, which we know we need to embed more into our work.

“At the same time many of the services we deliver have a huge impact on people’s lives, especially areas such as social care and children’s services, and it is absolutely right these areas continue to be a priority. This is reflected in the proposed structure.”

The precise details of which jobs will be lost and how departments will be restructured have not yet been revealed.

However, in his own plan, published after 100 days in charge, Mr Jones wrote about wanting the council to make more money from its assets and possibly expand into property deals with Government grants being cut.

He said: “These changes are about ensuring we create a flexible management team that is well placed to meet the challenges ahead.

“Since I started at the council in January I have been struck by how well run our services are. But speaking to employees, partner organisations and the public, it’s clear we need a more straightforward structure and I believe these proposals address these issues.”