HUNDREDS more jobs are almost certain to be lost at a council which has already shed more than 700 in the past five years, council leaders have warned.

Cllr Bob Cook, Labour leader of Stockton Borough Council, explained that £34 million has already been cut from the authority's budget since 2010 but another £17m must be saved over the next three years due to Government grant cut-backs and business rate reforms.

A report outlining a three-year plan to be debated by the council's Cabinet committee also argues there must another review of frontline services in the coming year and Cllr Cook warned that: "We cannot pretend that we can continue to do all the things that we currently do."

The first group of workers to be targeted will be senior managers and it is expected that £750,000 will be saved in a 'restructuring' of management which is expected to include job cuts.

The council still has an overall budget of about £160 million, down from about £200 million pre-2010, but councils now have more responsibilities, including public health improvements and the costs of looking after the elderly and vulnerable children are expected to continue rising.

The authority has also had to deal with an unexpected £1 million cut this year in its Government grant for public health.

Furthermore the money the council expected to collect from business rates has been hit after a number of successful appeals from large businesses and the authority has earmarked £1.5 million to return to various companies.

If a nationwide Virgin Media business rate appeal is successful it will mean a £2.3 million backdated cost to Stockton tax-payers and a £450,000 annual loss of income.

Over the next three years the authority, which still employs about 3,000 people to serve a population of about 191,000, expects to find £5.5 million from various efficiency savings including the senior management restructure, buying fewer library books, and cuts to the communications and human resources budgets. So far about £3,865,000 of that money has been identified as savings.

A further £6.9 million will come from cuts to services which will be worked out during the forthcoming review. Services being examined include waste collection, children's centres, museums, leisure, housing, transport and libraries. The rest of the annual budget savings will come from so-called 'big ticket' services for children and adult services, if the proposals are accepted.

The council has about £30 million in reserve but council Chief Executive Neil Schneider said that was already earmarked for spending apart from money the council has to keep in reserve by law in case of emergencies.

Cllr Cook said: "Inevitably there will be fewer universal front line services and greater focus on making sure the money we have can make the biggest difference to the people that need it the most."

The financial plan will be discussed by the cabinet committee at Stockton Central Library at 4.30pm on Thursday, July 16.