PROPOSALS to restructure the senior management of Waverley Council, delivering estimated annual savings of £122,000, have been put before councillors by chief executive Mary Orton. The changes, most of which, if approved, would come into effect in January, will go some way towards the estimated £3 million savings or efficiencies that Waverley anticipates it must make over the next four years to balance its books. For the council currently budgets to spend £600,000 a year more than it gets in income. And with no increase in government grant anticipated next year, the warning has gone out that dipping into balances to make up the shortfall is not sustainable. The management changes proposed form the second phase of the cost-cutting review which saw Mary Orton join the council herself in June, following the enforced redundancy of Christine Pointer as chief executive in April 2006. The four directors who headed the authority on a rota basis in the interim before Mrs Orton's arrival, would become strategic directors under the chief executive's new proposals. All five members of the strategic team (including the chief executive) will take responsibility for one of the five newly designated service departments - resources, environment, leisure and regulation, housing and community and corporate services and planning. Details of how the financial savings will be made were considered in private by Waverley's corporate overview and scrutiny committee on Monday. In public, they considered a report which spoke of a cost-effective structure retaining valuable talent and strengthening priority service areas of environmental services and housing. Various posts stand to be deleted from the establishment. Also among the recommendations is that Miller Stevenson, the property and development manager who has played a key role in the East Street redevelopment, be allowed to take "flexible retirement". Mrs Orton explained that this new measure enables staff to reduce their days of work or downsize their role while taking their pension. In the case of Mr Stevenson, the intention is that he goes part-time and works exclusively on the East Street project.
