The prospect of county council staff striking in protest at a one per cent pay rise has moved closer.

Unions representing council employees say KCC has not improved its offer following negotiations and that as a result, they intend to seek formal approval to ballot members on taking industrial action, including the possibility of strikes.

Kent Unison branch secretary David Lloyd said efforts to persuade KCC to reconsider the one per cent pay award had not succeeded. Both sides attended a meeting to discuss the pay offer on Thursday.

As a result of that meeting, the union has now approached regional organisers to secure the approval needed to ballot members.

A ballot assessing whether staff would back action held by Unison before Christmas indicated widespread support among members.

KCC says its one per cent pay offer is appropriate in the economic downturn and that unless it exercises pay restraint, there would have to be redundancies.