Jobs to go as charity proposes changes

Active Northumberland is proposing to make some changes to its organisational structure, which will mean fewer staff are required.
Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.
Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.

The proposals mean that the activities of the community sports and development teams would be more closely aligned with leisure operations to improve services and make services more efficient.

In terms of library and tourist information centre services, the proposals are designed to retain and improve the county’s services, bringing them together with other facilities where possible.

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Other proposals include reducing or removing retail goods at tourist information sites over the next 12 months and considering alternative methods of providing those services.

Plus, the charity’s back-office functions and administration support would be combined within a central unit at County Hall.

Acting chief executive Stuart Crichton said: “While we as a charity needs to reduce costs in the region of £3.5million over the next two years, this is not the sole reason for these changes.

“The aim is to better integrate the organisations brought together under the umbrella of the charity over the last two years.

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“The changes are proposed to make the structure of the charity and the services it offers sustainable and stable for the future.

“Integrating services at a number of locations across Northumberland will also mean fewer staff will be required.

“We are planning to reduce posts with voluntary redundancy wherever possible. We will do everything we can to avoid any compulsory redundancies.”

What does this mean in Alnwick?

Elsewhere, proposals to integrate services in the likes of Morpeth, Berwick and Hexham have been set out.

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In Alnwick, the council remains in discussions over the possibility of the Playhouse becoming a community hub housing the library, visitor information, customer services and registrars. We reported last week that the current library building has been put up for sale, although at least 18 months remains on the lease.