JOBS at South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse district councils are under threat as the two authorities move to merge their management, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

Councillors have been briefed about the plans and consultations with staff have begun.

Middle managers are those most likely to suffer.

About 750 staff are employed by the two councils, which have increasingly merged staffing since the appointment of David Buckle as chief executive of both local authorities in September last year.

In February, three strategic directors, each paid £96,000 a year, were picked to run services in both districts.

Now every council department has been told to identify where savings can be made.

Councillors are expected to approve a package of cuts by the end of this year, which will be implemented by the end of financial year in April.

The Conservative leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, Ann Ducker, said the councils were reviewing both their “structures and processes”.

She said: “There will be some redundancies.

“At the end of the day, the decision has not been made yet because it depends if we accept the structures put forward by each department.

“We have not decided which structure we are going to have, but jobs will be made redundant.”

She estimated about 10 staff could be made redundant, but her Liberal Democrat counterpart at Vale of White Horse, Tony de Vere, said he could not yet predict numbers. Another source at the council said up to 30 staff could lose their jobs.

Mr de Vere said: “Planning income and investment income are going down each year.

“The budget pressures are very significant as the recession works its way through local authorities.

“Before we get to the stage of compulsory redundancies, staff will be offered the chance to apply for voluntary redundancy.

“We are now carefully looking at how we can deliver the same service but across two councils.”

Steve Waite, trade union Unison's Oxfordshire officer, said: “These are uncharted waters.

“We are not against change for change sake as the councils inevitably merge, but at the moment we are really concerned this could be used to just reduce staff numbers and diminish services across the board.

“We are monitoring the situation extremely closely.

“It does seem nationally that the bankers got us into this mess but local government staff are expected to pay with their jobs.”