FEWER redundancies than originally planned at County Hall, Dorchester has resulted in a 'loss' of almost £5 million a year in savings, which will still have to be found.

Almost 100 positions have been saved so far, compared to the original job loss plans.

The decision meant the council achieved £5.7million in saving in its first year of transforming services, compared to the target of £10million.

Dorset councillors were told that it was realised early on in the council's transformation programme that shedding too many staff at once would be disruptive and may have impacted on services to the public.

The response was to scale back the proposed initial job losses and wait for staff to move on, retire, or take voluntary redundancy.

Members of the place and resources scrutiny committee were told that the decision means the council will still have to find £5million savings, year on year, roughly half the annual target.

Committee chairman Blandford councillor Noc Lacey-Clarke welcomed the outcome, saying he believed the 'big bang' idea was too ambitious to begin with.

"I'm very pleased we realised there was a potential problem and learnt from it. The original business case, in my opinion was inherently flawed, trying to go too fast, too soon," he said.

Officers told the meeting that the new approach was more stable for staff and services, allowing time for training staff in new skills and to take on new positions, although failed to achieve the savings initially set out.

Nina Coakley, head of transformation and design at the council, told councillors that what she described as the new 'phased approach' to change was safer and more sustainable for the council without risking front line services.

She said that natural turn-over at the council would, in time, help the council achieve its job losses, but without the need for forced redundancies – meanwhile the transformation team staff are now looking at other areas to achieve the target savings.

Lisa Cotton, interim director for transformation, said change in an organisation the size of Dorset Council would always be continuous.