TWO councils have saved more than £10 million since joining forces.

The strategic partnership between Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and High Peak Borough Council has saved each authority £5 million over five years.

Now Moorlands chief executive Simon Baker has told councillors that an additional £10 million will be saved for the Moorlands.

He said the partnership has proved so successful that other local authorities are following their lead.

Mr Baker said housing benefit claims had been speeded up and services, such as environmental health and grounds maintenance, had been improved.

He told a scrutiny panel meeting: "There has been a lot of interest in us because we were one of the early pioneers of combining services.

"Broadly we have taken the workforce with us. My contention is that they are better off because of the alliance than in individual authorities and there would have been far bigger workforce reductions. We have not lost a single individual through compulsory redundancy."

In the decade Mr Baker has been at the helm the number of staff has fallen from 750 to just over 200.

Opposition councillor Linda Malyon said: "We have lost a lot of experienced staff.

"I am concerned that it does put a lot of pressure on the staff who are left."

But deputy council leader Arthur Forrester said: "I would like to congratulate those involved in the alliance. I do not know what we would have done without it."