HUNDREDS of jobs are being lined up for a cull of council workers in Sefton.

Up to 400 posts could go in a massive cut designed to save between £5m and £6m.

The borough’s finance chiefs are trying to plug a £30m black hole which is threatening to emerge over the next three years.

And many of the staff could be forced out of their jobs through compulsory redundancies, because too few staff came forward after a call for volunteers.

It remains unclear where the cuts will fall, but political sources say highly specialised and difficult to recruit posts – such as those in social care – are being ring-fenced.

But senior councilors agree wherever the cuts are made there will be a loss of frontline services.

Political leaders in the borough were told of the move by chief executive Margaret Carney last week.

Legal notices were then issued to trade unions at the start of the week putting them on notice about the cuts.

Staff will lose their jobs by the end of March and some could be asked to leave sooner.

But deputy council leader and Labour councillor Peter Dowd said his group would rail against the cull. On hearing the news, he left the leaders’ meeting before the other leaders, leaving them to rubber stamp the notice to unions.

He said last night: “We think it’s premature to start off throwing that amount of numbers into the frame.

“We’re opposed to it unequivocally because it’s not just premature, we think it’s crass and sending out the wrong message.”

Senior councillors have been poring over cost-saving options in a Strategic Budget Review for months.

Shortly after arriving at the borough last September, Mrs Carney alerted politicians to the hole in their finances and started drawing up a list of potential savings, said to be 200 items long.

Cllr Dowd said his group wants the council to make decisions about supposedly less significant areas of the budget than its head count. He thinks services such as Southport’s Kew park and ride, which is heavily subsidised but under-used, should be cut first.

Cllr Dowd added: “We have got to the stage where there seems to be a reluctance to take action over minor things. If you’re not prepared to take decisions over things that are painless like the Kew park and ride, how are you going to take bigger decisions?”

Sefton staff were first invited to leave in letters sent to all employees dated mid-September.

Sources say Mrs Carney had hoped for around 200 staff to come forward and offer themselves up for redundancy or early retirement.