Council may cut 80 jobs

Up to 80 jobs could be lost under a restructuring proposal for the Queenstown Lakes District Council. The Southland Times has obtained a copy of the report, which outlines the jobs that will be lost and other proposed changes for the council and the now disestablished council-controlled organisations Lakes Leisure and Lakes Environmental. Changes were signalled late last year when the council announced a review of operations by an independent team. The draft report proposes reducing the number of staff to 254, meaning 80 staff could lose their jobs. Of the 334 employees, 163 are employed in operations – service centre managers, librarians, administration and support staff. The report proposes reducing operations staff by 42 to 121 and reducing planning department staff from 49 to 33.