Union leaders fear more than the proposed 500 jobs will be lost at Oxfordshire County Council after the authority announced it aims to make £106m in budget cuts.

Mark Fysh, the county council’s Unison branch secretary, said he was also worried about the effect on public services caused by the plans.

In June, the council warned that ten per cent of its 5,000 non-front-line positions would be cut to save £90m over the next five years but today has increased that figure by £16m.

Mr Fysh said: “When you talk about this kind of increase it will mean that more jobs will go at the end of the day.

“These are not nothing jobs either, but real jobs that look after real people who receive council services.

“Real people will start to suffer from this and it isn’t going to happen in the dim and distant future it will happen to people sooner rather than later.”

Council leader Keith Mitchell said the £106m cuts were necessary because the authority believes the grant it gets from the Government will be cut over the next few years.

However the authority said it is looking to reinvest £75m of the cuts to deliver services more efficiently.