HUNDREDS of city council staff will be told today their jobs are at risk.

Nottingham City Council is cutting staff in order to save money.

The authority is seeking to save about £18m in the next financial year to fund additional costs such as the increase in child protection cases, extra expenditure on adult social care, the council's move to a new office and paying money back to reserves which have fallen too low.

The council has refused to say how many jobs will go because it does not want to "panic" staff.

It released a statement last night saying 166 more jobs will be lost than will be created in the shake-up at the council.

Coun Graham Chapman, deputy leader of the city council, said: "Council officers feel if we were to say this is the gross number of job losses, staff would get panicky unnecessarily."

In its statement, the city council said: "It is unlikely that our budget proposals can go ahead without reductions in our workforce, though councillors and officers have worked hard to keep these to a minimum and protect front line services.

"The Executive Board has recommended a budget which, allowing for posts deleted and posts created, results in a reduction in the council's workforce of 166 full-time equivalent posts."

Staff will be told today if they are affected and will be invited to one-to-one briefings. There will be a 90-day consultation period with staff and unions.

Coun Jon Collins, leader of the city council, said: "We are looking to provide the same level of services but in a more cost-effective way. This has meant reorganising the council leading to a small reduction in posts.

Ravi Subramanian, regional officer at Unison, said: "It's a blow for Nottingham and the wider conurbation. We have got job losses at the county council and the city council. It will have an impact on individuals but also on the local economy."

Last year, the city council announced almost 700 jobs could go, with half of them vacant positions and half filled posts.

In the end, 241 vacant posts were deleted, 210 staff took voluntary redundancy, and 20 compulsory redundancy.

Yesterday, the Executive Board of the city council agreed its budget proposals.

But the budget still has to be approved by a meeting of the full council in March.