MONEY spent on agency staff by the council is on course to nearly double in three years as 120 to 150 contracted jobs look to go.

In 2014/15 £3.8m was spent bringing in agency staff by Wokingham Borough Council, a freedom of information revealed.

Three years later and £3.4m had been spent in the first half of 2017/18 alone, meaning £6.8m could easily have been forked out across the year.

As of September 30, 114 agency workers were employed by the council.

The rise comes as Wokingham begins to implement its 21st century council model which aims to save £4m a year by re-organising the workforce and introducing more digital self-service for the public.

Much of the savings will come through redundancies, with 120 to 150 full or part time employees in line to lose their jobs.

Although WBC did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication, earlier this year Councillor Anthony Pollock, executive member for economic development and finance, said: “Despite responding well to austerity and funding cuts from central government in recent years, Wokingham Borough still needs to save £19million by March 2020.

"Our far reaching 21st Century Council programme will make a significant contribution to our three year savings plan and we will become a leaner, more efficient council costing significantly less to run."