THE North-East’s largest council has spent more than £30m since 2010 on payments for those leaving the authority, it has emerged.

A document seen by The Northern Echo shows that cumulatively Durham County Council has spent £30.295m since 2010/11 on early retirement, voluntary redundancy and compulsory redundancy.

The highest figure was in 2011/12 when £10.246m was spent by the authority. To date in 2014/15 the figure is approximately £4.647m. All the costs have been met from the council’s reserves.

Hundreds of staff have lost their jobs at Durham County Council since the introduction of Government austerity measures. The authority recently said it expected its cuts total would top £250m by 2019.

Howard Pink, a regional organiser for the union Unison, said: “I’d agree it’s not an insignificant figure, but if you set it against the hundreds of millions the council has had to cut since 2010 it is actually quite a small amount.

“This isn’t ridiculous generosity. The slightly enhanced redundancy scheme was cut shortly after the new [unitary] council was established and this figure reflects the huge number of jobs that have been lost.

“It’s a combination of early retirements, voluntary redundancy and compulsory redundancy as well.

“This is a reflection of one-off costs, but cuts in the public sector are ongoing and permanent.”

Mr Pink said the payments made to people leaving the authority were largely modest.

“People might be walking away with a few thousand pounds each, it’s not individuals going out with golden handshakes and six figure sums. They would be a tiny minority,” he said.

“The average pension payment is also very low, we are not talking about people living a life of luxury.”

In a statement Jeff Garfoot, head of finance at Durham County Council, said: “Since the Government austerity measures were introduced beginning with the June 2010 Emergency Budget we have been required to deliver £136m of savings.

“Savings of £18.6m were required in 2010/11 followed by the highest annual savings figure to date of £66m in 2011/12. This is reflected in the redundancy figures.”