THE MAJORITY of local authority job losses as a result of Cornwall going unitary should be voluntary and not compulsory redundancies, former Caradon District Council leader John Turner said this week.

Mr Turner said one week into the new Cornwall Council, which replaced the six district councils and Cornwall County Council, there was still a lot of uncertainty over jobs, with workers not knowing whether they would have a job or where they would be working from in a few months' time.

Cornwall Council says 225 jobs will go as part of the transition and hopes that all the staff changes will be in place by the time of the council elections in June.

Mr Turner has been critical of the way the whole thing has been handled, saying the process of sorting out jobs had been left 'far too late in the day'.

He said: 'The process has not served the staff very well. So many people are living in a period of uncertainty. They have a job today but in the future — well, that has not been made clear to them.

'In the main, people will be selected for voluntary redundancy, like those who only have nine months to go before retiring.

'I am still hoping there will be no compulsory redundancies and through training and redeployment everybody who wants a job will have the opportunity to keep a job.'

He said his biggest fear was people being put in inappropriate posts.

'I am worried that working mothers who have childcare commitments will be given a job requesting them to travel to another place, where they will find it difficult to maintain the work/life balance in order to bring their family up.'

He said it was important that people were not given bad news on a telephone line from Truro but face to face in the local offices.

'We need to make sure there is going to be support at local level,' he said.

He added the challenge for the new authority was to keep communication on a local level and he would be he would be pushing hard to keep the East Cornwall area in focus at Truro, where Cornwall Council is based.

'The danger is the managers in Truro will be so focussed within a 20-mile radius of Truro, that the east and very far west of the county will cease to be encompassed in that thinking.

'I think it will be a challenge to change the mindset, particularly of officers who have worked at Cornwall County Council.'

But the new council says it is taking a 'localism' approach which is about delivering local services to better reflect local needs.

Former district council offices will remain for the forseeable future and administrators have been employed in 22 One Stop Shops, including Callington. Managers are also being appointed for the community networks, of which Callington will also be one.

Community networks will provide a focal point for better partnership working between public service providers and the community and voluntary sectors, to meet people's needs, says the council.

The managers will bring together panels led by unitary council members and will include representatives from town and parish councils, and will be able to invite voluntary and local organisations and other service providers like the police and health authorities to join them.

Head of Cornwall Council's localism service, Mary Cooper, said: 'We will be thinking and planning big but acting locally.

'By giving communities the opportunity to have a say about how we deliver local public services and involving town and parish councils more, we hope we can make our towns and villages better places to live.'