Union bosses have held urgent talks with Bradford Council chiefs in an effort to minimise the need for redundancies in the face of massive Government cuts in the authority’s budget.

Linda Crowther, Bradford branch secretary of public sector union Unison, told the Telegraph & Argus that they had been given an undertaking that “every avenue will be exhausted” in redeploying those workers who wanted to stay employed by the Council.

She said: “We’ve been told they can’t say never to compulsory redundancies but it will be the exception and there are no voluntary redundancies at the moment.”

She added that they were happy with the talks so far as the authority was trying to manage an extremely difficult situation.

Mrs Crowther’s comments follow chief executive Tony Reeves addressing members at a full meeting of the Council in City Hall on Tuesday night. He told councillors that between 25 and 40 per cent of the Council’s annual baseline budget of £400m would have to be cut in the lifetime of the coalition Government.

He outlined how up to £150 million would have to be cut from the local authority’s budget over the next four years and warned he could not rule out compulsory redundancies.

e-mail: jo.winrow@telegraphandargus.co.uk