MORE money has been saved than planned by merging two councils' senior staff teams together.

Cherwell District Council shares some of its executive staff members with Oxfordshire County Council, including the chief executive, the director of law and governance and the corporate director for customers.

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Ahead of the county council’s meeting on Tuesday, November 5, Conservative councillor George Reynolds of Cropredy, Sibfords and Wroxton, asked for a summary of how much money had been saved by the scheme.

Ian Corkin, cabinet member for the Cherwell Partnership, sent a written reply to Mr Reynolds.

The reply said there was an expected annual saving of £314,000 from the plans, but actual savings to date for 2019/20 were £364,000 according to a review from March.

Mr Corkin said there were six initial senior members of staff shared by both councils, and more had been added since.

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He added there were plans to add a further three senior joint posts to the list, which would work on IT, communications and property in both councils.

The written reply by Mr Corkin said: “As each of these are joint senior roles, the county council will see the costs of senior management reduce.”

Final savings costs will be worked out at the end of the financial year.