BOLTON Council has been inundated with requests for voluntary redundancy, as nearly 800 people asked to leave the authority in the wake of the latest spending cuts.

Since town hall leaders announced in November they would axe 500 posts to help cut £43 million from its budget, it has invited its employees to apply for severance.

They have received hundreds of extra applications — and the council says it would accept as many requests as possible as savings or redeployment opportunities.

A decision on the applications will be given to individuals by the end of March, with requests currently being analysed by management in the council.

Matt Kilsby, the spokesman for Bolton Unison, said news that so many people had enquired about leaving the council was worrying.

“The bottom line for us is no compulsory redundancies,” he said.

“What we have seen for those left behind is that they are doing more and more for the same pay, and when we get into reviewing proposals within the budget we will scrutinise them in great deal.

“Where there is proposals to delete posts that will be a serious concern for us.”

Of the 500 posts Bolton Council is looking to scrap, 100 are currently vacant.

Around 200 administration jobs will go, as the authority wants to combine secretaries and administration staff across the council into one single team.

Up to 60 jobs will be lost in environmental services too, as Bolton Council seeks to work with Wigan Council to share staff, plants and equipment to carry out bin collections and street cleaning.

Around 40 posts will be scrapped in adult services and up to 80 jobs will go in children’s services department as the authority looks to reduce the services on offer in children’s centres and within the youth, sport and play department.

In the development and regeneration department, another 30 jobs will be lost as the council looks to save money in the library and museum and housing services.

The latest round of job losses follows a difficult number of years for the local authority, with the town hall having already cut 1,350 jobs between 2010 to save £100 million.

Chief executive of Bolton Council Sean Harriss dismissed claims that the level of applications reflected unhappiness among his staff.

“From the staff survey it showed the majority of staff felt this was a good place to work, was coping well in difficult circumstances and they felt positive working here”, he said.

“Clearly these are worrying times for jobs, and people are concerned about their future.

“What we are pleased about is that this level of applications means that the likelihood of there being compulsory redundancies is significantly reduced.”