A COST-cutting exercise has led to the redundancy of the manager of an independent co-operative society.

Mr William Craig, who has been retail manager of the Stanhope and Weardale Co-operative Society for five years, was saddened by the decision of the board, which runs five stores in Weardale.

He understood the move was taken for the shops' benefit and had no complaints about the redundancy package on offer. But while he bore the board no malice, he felt managers of supermarkets such as Asda were paid higher salaries for looking after one store while he had been in charge of five.

Chairman, Mr Ivan Jones, said the board had been advised to make Mr Craig redundant as a way of reducing costs