HUNDREDS of council jobs in Southampton are to be axed as part of drastic plans to tackle a £40m funding crisis.

More than 300 posts are expected to go over the next three years. And frontline services will be hit as finance bosses battle to contend with ruthless Government spending cuts.

In the next nine months alone, 40 jobs are set to go - on top of the 120 losses already earmarked as part of the council's £183m budget set earlier this year.

More jobs are expected to be cut in coming years as the council continues to tight¬en its purse strings.

The reductions could wipe out around seven per cent of the council's 4,485 work¬force, excluding schools, while staff face a two-year pay freeze. But residents can expect no rise in council tax next year.

'Mini-budget'

Children's services will shoulder much of the initial cutbacks unveiled in a "mini-budget". The savings will total more than £4m when they all come into force by 2011/12.

Seven jobs will go in the department that provides rapid intervention for failing schools. Education bosses admit it may threaten GCSE and other test results.

Meanwhile charges could come in for visitor permits in the city's residents' parking zones. Parking bosses hope to raise £85,000 a year by charging for books of tickets - currently they are free.

A fee of 2.5 per cent will come in for using credit cards to pay for council services and two 'city wardens' will also be axed in the inner city areas of Polygon, Newtown and Nicholstown.

Union bosses have hit out at the cuts, refusing to rule out strike action, and have called for "meaningful dialogue" with the Conservative-run authority.

Unison's Southampton branch secretary, Mike Tucker, said: "We have been given five days' notice of the reductions which we regard as being in breach of employment law.

"We would call on the council to engage in meaningful dialogue with its employees before it makes any service cuts.

"In terms of action, we only received the information last Friday afternoon so we have not discussed what we are going to do next.

"We will be actively campaigning amongst our members within the council and the wider community to defend jobs and services against the cutbacks being proposed by central and local government.

Last week, a strike hit library services across the city as staff protested against plans to scrap funding for six librarians and replace them with volunteers. Further strikes have not been ruled out.

Now the mini-budget - due to be rubber¬stamped by the council in two weeks' time - has outlined plans for the loss of an additional 40 council jobs, 12 of which are vacant.

Staff have already been briefed and council bosses are promising a consultation period with as many workers as possible redeployed to other positions.

At the top, £80,000 will be shaved from the chief officers management team by removing one position and merging two other senior posts.

The mini-budget proposals include £1.638m of reductions as a direct result of cuts in government grants.

Based on a 25 per cent cut to most Whitehall departments, finance chiefs believe around 3.75 per cent a year will be chopped from their annual Government grant, which currently stands at £100m. But the cuts could be much deeper.

Labour finance spokesman Councillor Peter Marsh-Jenks said: "The ConDem Government's slash and burn approach to public services has a real danger of forcing the country into a double dip recession.

"Unfortunately the local Tories have grasped this approach with rabid enthusiasm. There is no way such cuts can be made with¬out real service reductions. School standards appears to have been especially singled out."

Jeremy Moulton, Cabinet member for resources, pictured left, said the council would listen to concerns and there could be a rethink over some cost-cutting measures if they spark a public outcry.

He denied union claims that the council had breached employment laws adding that "due legal process" had been followed.

"These are very tough times indeed, with local authorities having to make up massive deficits," he said.

"First and foremost we will continue our tradition of finding efficiencies by working better and smarter to both save money and protect our front line services where we can.

"However, the council needs to find millions in savings, and it is inevitable that a number of the 700 services that we provide will be directly affect¬ed.

"Southampton City Council needs to cut its cloth just like everyone else."