A RADICAL shake-up to save £1.3m at Oxford Town Hall will see more than half its departments scrapped and a new £90,000 executive job created.

Oxford City Council is undergoing the reorganisation to save cash, amid fears its grant funding from the government will dry up by 2018.

The Labour-controlled authority has slashed the number of department heads from 15 to seven and created a new £90,000-per-year post of assistant chief executive.

Council leader Bob Price said it was hoped the full reorganisation would be complete by October.

No staff will be made redundant, due to an agreement made with unions for up to 2018 that saw staff forego pay rises in return for a promise by the local authority to reduce job losses.

Instead, the council will use a “natural wastage” policy – it will not replace some employees when they leave.

Mr Price said: “Our financial strategy involves a commitment to being grant-free by 2018, so this is part of meeting that target.

“It will build on more than £6m of savings we have already made through re-structures since 2010.”

A new assistant chief executive will take over some responsibilities of the previous heads and bring together all of their policy directions, the council leader added.

He said: “It will hopefully add a bit more firepower to our policy direction.”

A job description published for the full-time role of assistant chief executive said whoever took the role would need to “assist the chief executive in management of the council, assist the leader in his community leadership role and lead on external affairs, corporate policy, consultation and managing partnerships”.

The salary for the job was listed as “circa £90,000” and was also described as a “politically sensitive” position.

Interviews for the role will be carried out by the city council’s appointments committee today.

Committee members include Mr Price, deputy leader Ed Turner, Liberal Democrat opposition leader Jean Fooks,executive board member for young people, schools and skills Pat Kennedy and councillors Andrew Gant and Gill Sanders.

The public and the press will be banded from the meeting.

On its website, the city council said this was so “discussions and deliberations of the committee with and about candidates are not compromised and so that the confidentiality of information is protected”.

It comes after head of planning Michael Crofton-Briggs, 59, stepped down in May, after 13 years in the role.

Mr Price said he had stepped down during the restructure.

Mr Crofton-Briggs was heavily involved in some of the biggest developments and regeneration schemes in Oxford since the war, including the redevelopment of the Westgate shopping centre, but also became target for criticism over his role in the Castle Mill flats controversy.

It saw Oxford University given permission to build student accommodation on the edge of Port Meadow, which campaigners say is blighted by the buildings.