MASSIVE money-saving measures planned by Cheshire County Council have sparked fears that jobs and services could be cut across the county.

In a measure it describes as'the most radical shake up of local government ever attempted by an English authority,' the council's Transforming Cheshire scheme promises to 'put every part of our organisation under the microscope' in the hope of making up a £50m funding shortfall over the next four years.

Council leader Paul Findlow said: 'This is a truly massive undertaking but the scale of the response is dictated by the size of the challenges facing us.

'Demands for our services are rapidly increasing and escalating costs are overtaking available resources at an alarming rate. Doing nothing was not an option.'

The council argued that falling birth rates, leading to under-subscribed schools,and a projected 50,000 increase in the county's elderly population by 2020, have made potentially swingeing cuts necessary.It refused to rule out job and service cuts.

A spokesman said: 'We are at the initial stages of this process at the moment, but we do know that providing services to members of the elderly population surge that's predicted will be impossible.

'We must reorganise to increase efficiency and provide money to front-line services. We have come up with more than 100 possible plans to reorganise, but they still have to be considered.

'There will be a smaller workforce than the 24,000 we currently employ, but hopefully that come about through natural wastage such as retirement and people moving to new jobs.'

Theissuesare likelytobeconsidered by councillors at a special meeting next month. Lib Dem leader Sue Proctor added: 'We have to take action now for the future well being of 680,000 people. There is no way we can simply continue to cut budgets or increase Council Tax. Other solutions have to be found to what is a national funding dilemma.'

The council said that work is already underway through the controversial Transforming Learning Communities scheme, which could see schools close, and the £100m Extra Care Village programme, in which 2,000 more care homes will be built to address the demographic changes. The latter will see retirement villages like a 60-home village for older people in central Middlewich and Winsford's Hambleton Way.

Despite the council's claims that it has 'cross-party support' for Transforming Cheshire, Mid Cheshire county councillors met the proposals with reserve.

Winsford's Labour Cllr Tony Hooton said: 'This isn't just hitting Cheshire, the whole country will be affected by these demographic issues, but everything is up for grabs here, as there is a significant funding gap which is already seen as likely to affect education and other major services.

'The council is Conservative-run and I don'tthinkitis really looking to avoid job losses and service cuts. It is running Cheshire on a very tight budget and will stick ruthlessly to that, which Labour would not do. There will be job losses and service cuts, but I hope they will be balanced by increases in other services.'

Northwich East and Shakerley Cllr George Mainwaring added: 'My worry is that there are some things that could have been done - and maybe need to be done - with tax increases. For example, at present if elderly people have more than £20,000, they have to pay £16.20 per hour for carers, but if the council had put 11p per week onto Council Tax, then we could have afforded to make that free.'