EMPLOYEES made redundant by Colchester Council were given payoffs totalling £800,000.

Draft accounts show the authority made 19 workers compulsorily redundant and made agreements with 52 more staff to leave during the 2011/12 financial year.

In total, they were given £800,063, with two managers earning more than £40,000 a year sharing a payout package totalling £87,045.

All but 10 of the employees earned less than £20,000, and most worked in the revenues and benefits and housing services.

Paul Smith, councillor responsible for resources, said the job losses were the result of a series of service reviews aimed at offering residents a better service at lower cost.

He said: “I think it’s fair to say that all councils are going through restructuring and there will be redundancy costs, and in one or two cases they will be fairly substantial.

“We have cut the back office rather than the front office and in most cases we have been able to maintain services and in some cases improve them.

“All of the redundancy costs will lead to savings in the long run."

The number of full-time and part-time officers at the council now totals 844, down from 884.

The falling roll has had no impact on its pensions deficit, which has shot up by £25 million in just 12 months.

Mr Smith said: “That’s partly due to the poor performance of the stock market - the value of the shares we have invested in haven’t gone up as anticipicated.

“We had a target gain of seven or eight per cent which we haven’t achieved.

“Then we have got the general demographics - people are living longer.”