North Northamptonshire Council has more than NINE HUNDRED vacancies

There are a staggering 939 staff vacancies at North Northamptonshire Council.

The figure was revealed at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday (September 29), on the eve of the council's six month anniversary. When the council was formed in the spring, there were 786 vacant posts.

Labour councillor Anne Lee asked at the meeting for the current vacancy rate in each of North Northamptonshire Council's directorates.

Cllr Lee's question was prompted by a report on the council's finance and scrutiny committee that appeared in the NN Journal detailing concerns over the number of staff that had defected from the North of the county to West Northamptonshire.

Answering the question, council leader Jason Smithers said that, following the introduction of the new authority that replaced the county council and the four boroughs, a full staffing review was under way.

He added: "The number of vacant posts will fluctuate to reflect the transitionary nature of (the authority)."

He revealed that there were 939 vacant posts across the directorates with

- 196 in place and economy

- 404 in adult, community and wellbeing

- 73 in children's services

- 266 across enabling services

Cllr Lee asked what the authority was doing to address its high vacancy rate and Cllr Smithers said: "There is a process going on at the moment to fill these vacancies but we're looking at the moment to bottom-out where these vacancies are sitting."

Vacancies currently being advertised by the council range include a £38,890 principal economic development officer post, a cyber and information security job with a salary of up to £62k and a golf assistant at Priors Hall golf course with a salary of £18k.

In September we revealed that council carers in Northants were being paid the lowest wage in the country, leaving 32 vacancies across the department.