The extenet of future job cuts at Cheshire East has been thrown into confusion after council leader Wesley Fitzgerald denied a figure of 700 over the next five years in a new local government survey.

Coun Fitzgerald told The Express he had ‘no idea’ why the BBC’s new ‘English regions survey’ showed the 14,000 workforce being reduced by five per cent, equivalent to 700 jobs, over the next three to five years.

The council had responded to questions about its future financial plans along with more than 100 other local authorities across England.

But Coun Fitzgerald said yesterday (Tuesday) that changes were ongoing, and talking about three to five years time was ‘faintly ridiculous’.

"I am not aware of this. I would love to have a chat with whoever gave that figure because we have no idea at the moment," he said.

"Established councils maybe able to give figures but we are dealing with a workforce not yet settled.

"There will be some voluntary redundancies, there may be some compulsory redundancies but we don’t know at the moment what the figure will be.We are not cutting any jobs in frontline services."

But a Cheshire East spokeswoman last night stood by the figures, saying they had come direct from the Borough Treasurer, Lisa Quinn.

She said ‘non-statutory areas’ like libraries, leisure and the arts were most vulnerable to job cuts and that the overall reduction in spending over the next three to five years was expected to reach ten to 15 per cent.

Last month the Express revealed another 250 jobs were being cut in the short term. Cheshire East has always denied the job losses will affect services.