MORE than 240 staff at a newly-formed council could lose their jobs under major restructuring plans.

Cheshire East Council has identified 241 employees who are facing redundancy or redeployment within months.

A report to the council's cabinet said the authority had been working on the restructuring plans since it took over from Cheshire County Council and the area's borough councils in April.

Head of human resources and organisations development Paul Bradshaw said it was initially thought 135 redundancies would be made.

But he has now revealed that 241 workers are directly affected by the plans.

Most of the jobs are back office roles, including IT staff.

But the figure also includes staff at a nursery and a community centre.

The authority has already approved 44 voluntary redundancies at a cost of £2.78 million, and has enough reserves to fund another 101.

But it estimates that between 96 and 111 employees will have to face either redeployment or compulsory redundancy.

And those who are redeployed could still be at risk, as they can be dismissed without redundancy pay-outs if they fail to perform in their new roles.

Mr Bradshaw said in the report: "Inevitably as the council develops new fit-for-purpose structures, within the available budgetary provision, a number of employees will be displaced and their employment will come to be at risk.

"The council supports employees in this situation by seeking to redeploy them.

"Immediately issuing compulsory redundancy notices would adversely affect the council in that we would lose skilled staff we could otherwise have retained, potentially harm the public perception of the council and also result in additional financial implications."

Congleton Town West ward member councillor Roland Domleo said he hoped the majority of staff whose jobs were threatened could be retrained.

He said: "As we continue to merge the three previous council functions, there will be job losses.

"The council is very keen to put those for whom there is no post into a redeployment pool and to see if there is another job they could be trained to do.

"The staff and the trade unions know what is happening and they have been aware of this from the beginning.

"This is the way that the Government wanted to do things in order to make sure that we become more efficient and provide better services with a lower council tax."

The restructuring proposals will be discussed by cabinet members at a meeting on Tuesday.