UNION leaders fear almost one in five staff at West Somerset Council could lose their jobs as part of the authority's latest economy drive.

Any cuts would be across the board, with senior managers equally in the line of fire after the council confirmed it was having talks about merging managers and sharing services with neighbouring authorities Taunton Deane and Sedgemoor.

The council's Unison representative Janet Grieve said she had been warned that up to 20 of the 97 staff could be made redundant as the authority battled to save up to £1.25 million over the next four years.

The Free Press has learned that the council may try to finance the redundancy payments using £212,000 of left-over Working Neighbourhoods grant funding, which was given to the council specifically to create jobs and to tackle "worklessness".

Staff numbers at the authority have plummeted in recent years - there were 140 staff on the payroll just two years ago.

But despite the gloomy forecast, councillors decided the time was right to promote their current executive director Adrian Dyer to chief executive.

Council leader Cllr Tim Taylor told Wednesday's full council meeting the move was merely a name change and would not cost any extra money.

But he accepted that if a remuneration committee was set up to review all senior managers' salaries - a move which was later agreed by councillors - that could, in turn, lead to calls for Mr Dyer to be paid more money.

Currently, Mr Dyer receives an annual salary of £61,000, compared to the average chief executive pay of £97,818.

According to local government figures, the lowest paid chief executive in the country is paid almost £10,000 more than Mr Dyer.

Cllr Taylor said all that was changing was the name - the terms, conditions and job protection afforded to Mr Dyer would remain the same.

"There are salary scales for chief executives and our executive director is a long way off the bottom of the scale," he said.

"If he takes on the title, it does not mean he takes on that scale. If we agree to have a remuneration panel, it will be up to the panel and this council to agree a salary.

"We do not want to slavishly follow a payment scale . . . but our salaries are not always in the league to attract the people we want."

Cllr Taylor said Mr Dyer's pay was half that of the chief executive of South Somerset District Council and was closer to that of group managers at neighbouring authorities.

But Cllr Jon Freeman said West Somerset was only a small authority and Mr Dyer's pay should reflect that.

"I wonder how much more seriously anyone will take us if we change the title to chief executive?" he said.

"Weston-super-Mare Town Council's revenue spend is greater than this council's, so it would equally be as sensible to rename the executive director as clerk."

He said he was concerned the name change was merely the "thin edge of the wedge" and said councillors had a duty to taxpayers who would be expected to pick up the bill for redundancy pay-offs and suffer reduced services as a result of job cuts.

Cllr Hugh Davies said councillors did not know whether Mr Dyer was suitably qualified to be a chief executive and argued that the job should be advertised rather than an appointment made "willy nilly".

"I would ask this council whether Mr Dyer being called chief executive rather than executive director would have resulted in a different outcome at any the meetings he has attended on our behalf," he said.

"If we look forward and West Somerset ceases to be and is amalgamated, what happens to the chief executive then?

"Rather than putting pips on someone's arm, who should be thinking of the people who are keeping us going and who we are thinking of making redundant."

Although no details about job losses have yet been confirmed, councillors met privately on Monday to discuss wide-ranging proposals to save money.

The results of the discussions are likely to be made public next week, ahead of the December meeting of the authority's cabinet.

Cllr Taylor said central Government had made it clear it expected councils to cut costs by sharing staff and services and he believed there was now a chance for West Somerset to form a democratic alliance with other local authorities.

"There will be a huge commitment for whatever we do, for it does seem to me to be a necessity," he said.

Cllr Peter Humber said it was vital any merger was driven forward to ensure the proposal did not go the same way as the previously failed bids for a unitary authority or the county-wide Pioneer Somerset scheme.

"This council has a history of turning away from reform and not voting for a unitary authority was the biggest mistake this council has ever made," he said.

"It concerns me nothing will happen. It must be driven with dedication and not allowed to drift."

Councillors were told further talks were due to be held with Sedgemoor and Taunton Deane, while staff at Exmoor National Park Authority and North Devon were also likely to be consulted.