CUTS to early retirement and voluntary redundancy payments for hundreds of council workers have been agreed by the North-East’s biggest council, despite doubts over their affordability, The Northern Echo has learnt.

Durham County Council agreed at a full council meeting on Wednesday to cap payments at 52-and-a-half weeks, based on actual pay – a reduction of 30 weeks.

The same day, an email sent to staff – which invited them to take early retirement or voluntary redundancy – confirmed that the new policy would be in place as soon as next month.

A report considered by councillors said the option chosen could cost £2.6m more than the strategic reserve the council had set aside to pay for it.

It said the “financial position should be kept under continuous review to ensure its ongoing affordability”.

Councillors had been advised that 45 weeks was “probably affordable” and 30 weeks “definitely affordable”.

The agreed change met with significant opposition from a number of councillors, among them Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Independents either voting against or abstaining.

County councillor Nigel Martin, the leader of the council’s Lib Dems, said: “The package agreed is still a lot more generous than many people in the private sector who are losing their jobs will receive. We must try and ensure that we protect council services as much as possible and have to be really prudent about the way we go about things.”

County councillor John Shuttleworth, who represents Weardale as an independent, suggested the change could be open to a legal challenge because the council’s previous early retirement and voluntary redundancy terms brought in after local government re-organisation was agreed to run until April 2012.

Council chiefs said the existing policy was unaffordable because the Government has cut funding.

But with the county council potentially axing up to 1,600 jobs to make savings – many likely to be lower-paid staff – there have been protests that many higher-paid staff have already left on more generous terms. Durham County Council has also removed the “added years” element of its early retirement policy – an incentive which boosts an individual’s pension – to those aged over 55.

Elsewhere, North Tyneside and North Yorkshire County Council have adopted policies with a 30-week redundancy maximum.

Most other councils are reviewing their terms.