A VOTE will be held today on plans to axe the role of chief executive at Oxfordshire County Council.

Councillors will meet in County Hall from 10am for the meeting, which will also see them consider final budget proposals for the 2015/16 year.

Council leader Ian Hudspeth has said removing chief executive Joanna Simons could save £250,000 annually, although she will receive a payout of nearly £600,000 overall.

And the proposals could be derailed by opposition leaders, who last night revealed they have tabled an amendment to defer the decision until a later date.

It comes as the council has fully outlined plans to spend £575.1 million on services and has a schools grant from the Government of £262.8m. Of the £575m, it is estimated 47 per cent will be spent on adult and children’s social care, with the next biggest area being education and early intervention, at 17 per cent.

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The authority has proposed raising council tax by 1.99 per cent, 0.01 per cent lower than the threshold requiring a local referendum. The local authority has said this year’s proposed council tax rise will prevent it having to make £3.2m more in savings. It has already set out plans to make savings of £65m over the next four years.

And in December it was revealed an extra £20m of savings was also needed due to the rising cost of social care. The brunt will be borne by adult social care, set to have its budget slashed by £9.87m by 2018.

The next biggest budget cuts are to corporate spending and to “environment and economy”, which will both see budget reductions of about £7.2m. Environment and economy covers highways, property, customers services and sustainable development.

But council spokesman Paul Smith said extra cash on top of what was expected has allowed last-minute changes to spending plans. He said additional money from Government grants and a higher-than-forecast business rates income meant £1.2m was available.

Among savings that have been reversed is a cut to grants for community action groups of £70,000.