ONE in 10 workers could lose their jobs as Vale of White Horse District Council is looking to cut £3.5m out of its budget.

Yesterday community groups and the Unison union hit out at the cuts being proposed over the next five years.

But council leader Tony de Vere said the cuts would not affect frontline services, an idea dismissed by the union Unison.

However, Mr de Vere warned residents tough times lay ahead.

He said: “We find ourselves in a challenging position, partly because of the recession but also because the main political parties seem intent on outdoing each other with the severity of the cuts they are going to make to council funding.

“I expect something like 10 per cent of members of staff’s jobs to be under threat and those people are obviously concerned about that, but if the Government takes away something like £1m from our net expenditure it doesn’t just appear somewhere else.

“The electorate will be expecting us to keep our council tax down and I’m fairly confident we will be able to.

“I am also confident front-line services will not be affected.

“I cannot say what will be cut as it hasn’t been finalised yet but we’re still committed to housing, supporting our market towns and tackling climate change.

“We have already begun the process of merging services with South Oxfordshire District Council and that has saved us in the region of £2.5m.”

Mr de Vere said the full budget proposals would be published by mid-December.

The council’s annual net expenditure is £14m to £15m.

Steve Waite, Unison’s Oxfordshire regional organiser, hit out at Mr de Vere’s claims front-line services would not be cut.

He said: “It’s easy to say frontline services will not be affected.

“But when you take out all the people who work behind the scenes it’s almost impossible for things to continue as they were.”

Susannah Ashworth is a debt adviser at Abingdon Citizens Advice Bureau, which receives more than three-quarters of its funding from the district council.

She said: “We’re watching the situation very closely because we don’t want to have to go the way of the Didcot branch and start shutting more often.

“For us, cuts would be very bad, especially as the advice we provide probably ends up saving the council money.”