PROPOSED staff cuts in a Monmouthshire council department would save the authority nearly £136,000, councillors will be told at a meeting on Wednesday.

Monmouthshire council’s cabinet will decide whether to pass the changes to the Partnership and Policy team, which would see six posts deleted and two full-time and one part-time job created in their place, as part of the 2014/15 budget.

A report, written by Will McLean, the council’s head of Partnerships and Policy, said the plans would save the council £135,645.The job cuts, to two project officers, a data and needs assessment officer, a project support officer, an apprentice and a business support officer, would save £446,313 and the employment of the proposed new staff would cost £310,669.

As part of the council’s budget the department must cut £175,000 but the department has said it can make up the other money by saving £19,395 on supplies and services costs, and that it can make another £20,000 by charging for their services.

The report said savings in the supplies and services budget were made after a “thorough and rigorous examination”.

And while it said the council will try to find jobs for people who are made redundant if this is not possible, redundancy costs will have to be paid from reserves.

The report said the plans create “a high quality, flexible and agile resource” that “will enable Monmouthshire (to) meet its future challenges in an effective manner”.

Over the next year the department will, according to the report, “face some key tests of its ability to act in an effective, strategic and corporate manner”.

It will be visited twice by Estyn as part of monitoring visits.

Last month the council passed plans for its operations department that will save it £585,000 by in part cutting the number of staff from170 to 149.

At the time, Monmouthshire council’s cabinet member with responsibility for county operations, Councillor Bryan Jones said: “The council is endeavouring to protect services to the public as far as possible.”