TORFAEN council is looking to make savings worth more than £9 million over the next financial year, with large-scale cuts from areas including schools, housing and social care.

A report published yesterday and due to be delivered to the council's cabinet next week proposes £9.2 million of savings for 2011/2012.

This would result in 80 jobs losses and reduce the authority's overall draft budget from £167 million to £158 million.

Leader of the council Councillor Bob Wellington said this has been Torfaen's "most difficult budget ever", and the authority was working within a "perfect storm" of increased costs and a 1.7 per cent cash reduction in funding from the Assembly.

The report, which will go before cabinet on January 18, looks at a wide range of proposed savings including £3.8 million from social care and housing, £1.9 million from the education budget, and £1.1 million from neighbourhood services.

In social care and housing, £100,000 would be saved by increasing the cost of Meals on Wheels by 30 pence. The authority currently delivers around 140 meals, with hot meals priced at £3.60 and frozen meals at £2.62.

£480,052 could be saved by transferring two out of county residential children's placements to a young persons' hostel.

Savings in education would include £198,334 met from staffing reductions, £52,170 from catering and cleaning services, and £10,000 worth of savings from reducing the use of printing and photocopying.

If approved by cabinet, the proposals could result in the loss of 80 jobs from its 6,500 strong workforce.

But the council is also in talks with unions to reduce the number of compulsory redundancies through voluntary redundancies, redeployment, flexible retirement, additional unpaid leave and career breaks.

Cllr Wellington said the authority was trying to protect valued services, and that while there would be redundancies the predicted job losses were lower than previously thought.

He added: "I am conscious that residents are feeling the pinch of recession and face similar decisions to make ends meet. Quite simply, it is our duty to make sure that every pound is put to it best use."

The report seeks cabinet approval for the proposals, and a final budget will be submitted to full council of March 1.