JOBS will go unfilled and departmental budgets will be trimmed as council bosses strive to save money.

Three Rivers District Council announced at a meeting on Monday evening that more than £350,000 had been saved this year, with a further £1 million in efficiency savings planned for the next two financial years.

The Rickmansworth-based authority is responding to central government demands to run a more efficient business.

“Ministers demanded in 2007 that all local authorities trim more than nine per cent from their budgets by the end of 2012.

Managers in each of the council’s departments have since been asked to cut back on spending.

The council is keen to stress, however, that this will not result in a poorer service.

Accountancy Manager Alan Power said: “We are not simply allowed to cut services.

“An efficiency saving has to result in either the same service or an improved service to count.”

Any savings, he added, can be spent in one of two ways: by reducing the burden on the taxpayer or improving frontline services such as recycling.

Under its current spending plans councillors are committed to increasing Council Tax by just 2.9 percent in each of the next three years.

Conservative councillor and deputy group leader Chris Hayward, however, demanded that any savings be passed to the taxpayer as soon as possible.

He said: “We’ve long argued the case that the council is sitting on far too much money and should give more of it back to taxpayers.

“We say that council tax should not rise at all given the amount of money the council has in the bank.”