BOLTON has defended its decision not to respond to a national survey on future job cuts.

The BBC’s Facing The Cuts survey, which was sent to 150 councils across the country, found that as many as 25,000 jobs could be lost over the next five years, as a result of authorities struggling to cope in the aftermath of the recession.

The BBC said Bolton Council was one of the 57 authorities who did not respond to the survey, which is part of an investigation into the scale of council cuts.

Of the 93 councils which did respond, only 49 were prepared to answer questions about actual job cuts.

The rest only gave details of spending cuts with libraries, the arts and leisure identified as the services most vulnerable, while services for the homeless, children's social services and planning were more likely to be protected.

Neighbours Bury Council also did not respond to the survey.

Yesterday, BBC Radio Manchester, along with every other BBC local radio station in the country, hosted a one-hour debate on the cuts.

But a Bolton Council spokesman said: “The BBC’s survey was extremely complex and detailed, asking us to analyse figures over a four year period.

“It would have taken a lot of officer time to compile the level of detail and amount of information required to complete the survey.

“We therefore decided that our priorities were to focus on delivering services for the people of Bolton, rather than filling in surveys.”

This year, Bolton Council has been forced to find savings of more than £7 million and director of corporate resources Steve Arnfield has warned that bigger cuts would have to be made because of an expected cut in funding from the Government.

Last month, Mr Arnfield told The Bolton News that cuts of up to £15 million will need to be found in the next year to balance the books in 2011/12 and that cuts to services could be expected.