BOROUGH councillors will be asked to consider cutting £1million from a council’s services next year to help balance its books and job cuts will be one of the options.

Special meetings of Swale Borough Council’s executive and full council have been called next Wednesday evening to consider various measures, which could include making some of its 340-strong workforce redundant.

Other options include axing non-essential services, selling its Sittingbourne headquarters Swale House and then leasing it back as a tenant, or renting out empty office space in Swale House.

Cllr Mike Cosgrove (Con), executive member for finance and administration, declined to give any details about possible redundancies or service cuts, saying legal experts had advised the authority not to comment until the council had made its decisions.

The council needs to find £1.5million to maintain current services in the next financial year (2006-07), make cuts worth that amount, or agree on a combination of savings and ways to raise money.

Cllr Cosgrove said the council had little room to manoeuvre as council tax rises were currently capped at five per cent by the Government and the council was locked into a national agreement to pay staff a 2.9 per cent salary increase.