THE recent cost-cutting exercise at Ryedale District Council has been described as a “cull of staff” that “didn’t need” to happen because the authority currently has £12 million in its reserves.

The Towards 2020 programme started in summer 2016. It led to a significant reduction of staff at the authority, both through redundancies and people leaving and not being replaced.

The comments were made by members of the authority’s policy and resources committee at a meeting on Thursday, while they were discussing the latest developments in the “corporate peer review process”.

Liberal Cllr Tim Thornton said that the cost-cutting had been “pushed through” by the majority Conservative group, that there had been a “lack of transparency and strategic planning” and that the consultants used during Towards 2020 were “just brought in to cull the staff”.

“But they cut far too deep and left departments struggling,” he said. “We culled the staff and actually didn’t need to. This report, when you read it with that in mind, is excoriating. There was a lack of transparency. We’ve outsourced environmental health and other things, the officer base has been slowly chopped away - and we have £12m in the pot.”

Cllr Lindsay Burr added: “I’m very saddened that with Towards 2020 the value of our team seemed to diminish and we lost a large amount of very talented and good officers which has been to the detriment of this council. And really we needn’t have, because the budget was all wrong.

“We’ve been allowed to think we had no money. All in all it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. It hasn’t been a happy time for Ryedale and I’m so pleased that we’re moving forward now.”

Conservative Cllr Luke Ives said: “This council is here to serve the public. We should welcome scrutiny and welcome challenge.

“This council had a reduction in budget. The net budget has decreased quite drastically. In order to survive it’s been necessary that we organise and work more efficiently and more productively. There were some great successes - we achieved savings while actually expanding services. Towards 2020 has delivered significant savings.

“We have a very dedicated workforce. I’m saddened that we lost some talented members of staff. I wish they were still here but unfortunately the budget hasn’t allowed that.”

And fellow Conservative Cllr Val Arnold said: “I’d just like to say that any decisions - right or wrong - are made by 30 members of this council.”

The council’s earmarked reserves were £12.8m as of March 31. Over the last year these increased from £8.7m, largely as a result of a £2.1m in-year underspend and a Government “new homes bonus” of £1.3m.

The so-called corporate peer review process started in October 2016 when the council was reviewed by other local authority members - resulting in a critical report - and continued when they revisited in April 2018.

Ryedale’s chief executive Stacey Burlet highlighted three general themes from the peer review which she recommended as their focus going forward - valuing the workforce, putting in place a strategic plan, and a need for a more collaborative approach.