WEST Devon councillors this week agreed to axe nearly 100 jobs within the borough council and South Hams District Council to keep the authorities afloat into the future.

The radical plans to balance the books, which include using more technology, are expected to save the councils, which already share services, a total of £3.8-million a year and help them bridge a combined budget gap of £4.7-million up to 2018.

Despite the Mayor of West Devon Bill Cann saying he could not support 'the sacking' of 100 people, councillors approved the 'Transformation programme' by 27 votes to two, claiming the alternative was to go out of business.

Redundancies are expected to start in the middle of next year.

West Devon Borough Council and South Ham District Council were pioneers in sharing most of their services and staff since 2007, bringing in almost £6-million in savings between them.

The transformation programme, described as 'ground-breaking', will implement a new way of working, replacing long established council departments with customer-focussed teams of officers who will work out of the office and more within the community.

A significant part of the council offices at Kilworthy Park in Tavistock, which will no longer be needed, will be rented out to bring in an income.

The councils will invest in the latest technology to enable residents and businesses to conduct their business online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but those who prefer will still be able to contact the councils by phone or a visit to the offices.

But there were reservations at the D-Day meeting of West Devon Borough Council on Monday, which followed the green light from South Hams District Council to the plans last Thursday.

Some councillors said the Government cutbacks in local government funding, which were forcing these changes, stemmed from a desire to get rid of the entire district and borough council level, and make Devon a unitary authority like Cornwall.

Cllr Ted Sherrell likened the borough council to the Titanic.

He said: 'It's nothing to do with navigation.

'We haven't hit the iceberg, the iceberg has hit us. These proposals are the way forward because they are the lifeboat, but will it get us to land or will it sink? I don't know.

'Whatever happens, there are many who had given hard work and loyal service to this council who will lose their jobs and there will be an effect on the council taxpayers — you cannot get back on budget without services being reduced somewhere along the line.'

Cllr Terry Pearce said he was horrified by Central Government's lack of encouragement over the years to West Devon's pioneering ways of working.

He said: 'As a council we have been a forerunner and leading light in the way we work in terms of finances and we have saved a considerable amount of money.

'It is very sad not to be recognised for this and so too is the refusal to allocate any money into our transformation programme.'

Borough officers were praised for their 'innovative, progressive programme' by Cllr Robert Oxborough, who said they had taken a difficult problem and come up with a creative solution that he felt would improve the way services were delivered in the future.

'This is Plan A, Plan B is West Devon as an authority will die,' he said.

Cllr Bob Baldwin said he was looking forward to working more closely with other organisations, from public services to the private sector, by having designated 'locality offices'.

In the future the council officers could be based in libraries and police stations.

'This is an unsettling time for staff but we have to pursue this enthusiastically and hopefully ensure that we, as members, have an input into the model as it makes its journey,' he said.

Leader of the council Philip Sanders praised the staff at the borough council for being the most caring he had ever worked with, despite his 40 years with the NHS. He said most of the job losses would be natural wastage and redundancy packages which fitted in with people's life plans.

There are currently 110 full time employees at West Devon Borough Council and 302 at South Hams District Council.