FOUR chief executives’ jobs could be axed across Dorset’s councils as part of a major shake-up.

It is the ‘preferred option’ agreed by the seven chief executives and seven council leaders under a joint Pathfinder programme.

Dorset’s Pathfinder is a programme of commitments between all seven councils, which was launched a year ago to improve efficiency and access to services across the county.

The proposals include merging a host of public services.

Dorset County Council has agreed with district council bosses to combine their structures into two ‘clusters’ covering half the county each.

And some major operations, such as waste collection and IT, could be integrated across the entire county.

Weymouth.gov.uk" target="_blank">Weymouth and Portland Borough Councillor Mike Goodman, speaking on behalf of all councils, said chief executives and leaders had agreed to integrate the management teams of all district and borough council into two clusters.

This would mean one combined management team and officer structure for ‘South Dorset’ covering Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, West Dorset District Council and Purbeck District Council.

A second would cover Christchurch Borough Council, East Dorset District and North Dorset District Councils.

Councillor Goodman, who is chairman of the management committee of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said if this option were given the go-ahead by all the councils, only three chief executive jobs would exist instead of the current seven. He said: “I’m sure some people will take it as an opportunity to reach up for more responsibility and others will think it’s time to move on or move out.

“We have a 10 per cent annual turnover of staff anyway so if it can be done voluntarily rather than by redundancies – that would save a lot of money.

“We’re looking for the first branch of savings to be made by April 2011 and we want bankable savings from merging senior management and other supervisory staff by that stage.”

He added: “What we have rejected is having one chief executive for the whole of Dorset – which would mean a unitary authority such as Cornwall.

“We in Dorset have rejected that twice – we want to work in ways of making some savings the unitary option would give us, while retaining the local direction of our services and local accountability.”

Some services – including waste, ICT and procurement – will eventually be integrated across all seven councils.

Merging the waste service could save £1.2million.

Ali Henderson, the Pathfinder programme manager for Dorset County Council, said decisions would be made in December this year.

She said: “The first stage really is looking at very senior manager positions. Our main thrust is to protect our frontline services – we’re not going to see any major job cuts.

“All that’s happened so far is the council leaders and chief executives have put forward their preferred option, now we have to wait for the individual councils to agree and give their preferences in the coming months.”

Mark Sturgess, general manager for the Purbeck District Council planning department, said: “The decision in principle is merge the management and officer structure which could lead to redundancies and job losses but we won’t know until this Christmas”