AROUND 1,000 jobs will be lost at a Merseyside council over the next four years amid huge spending cuts.

Sefton Council announced it anticipates having to make “minimum” savings of £53m by 2014, following a nosedive in grants from the Government.

The authority last night said it was facing a 28% budget cut in light of George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review, with the majority of savings to be found within the next two years.

Sefton was the first Merseyside council to publicly detail how many jobs it expects to lose following Mr Osborne’s speech last week. The Daily Post revealed how more than 16,000 jobs could be lost across Merseyside as a result of the Government’s cuts.

Wirral Council has written to 6,000 employees asking if they would be interested in redundancy or early retirement, but it has not said how many staff it hopes to shed in the face of a £108m budget deficit.

Last night, Sefton Council chief executive Margaret Carney admitted the impact on jobs and services would be “significant”.

She said: “Sefton is a relatively high-performing, low-cost council and a lot of wastage has already been driven out of the organisation. It is in this context we have to find this £53m.

“You cannot take £53m – a quarter of the council’s controllable budget – and that not be noticed. The big issue is minimising the impact on the communities of Sefton.”