BOURNEMOUTH Council has paid £71,000 in redundancy fees - for an officer at Borough of Poole.

Carl Wilcox, head of human resources at Poole council, chose to take voluntary redundancy and early retirement following the decision to merge his role with Bournemouth.

Mr Wilcox had been in the position since September 2009.

According to Borough of Poole Mr Wilcox's entire redundancy fee is £142,000 - with Bournemouth Council contributing 50 per cent of the cost which is £71,000.

The fee has been split between the two authorities as the position is being merged with one head of human resources for both councils, said a Borough of Poole spokesman.

The current head of human resources at Bournemouth council, Saskia De Vires, has been given the post.

The merger is expected to save both councils approximately £36,000 per year after the provision of £9,000 for any additional capacity required to support the new joint role.

Julian Osgathorpe, strategic director for corporate services at Borough of Poole said: “Both councils are committed to working more closely together to reduce costs and provide services to our residents more efficiently in response to the continued reduction of funding from central government.

“The two councils already share a number of senior management posts, including joint heads of finance and adult social care.

"We are now moving to the next stage of shared working by establishing joint corporate services providing back-office functions for both organisations. In doing so, the two councils have agreed to share the costs and savings associated with this arrangement equally.

“By sharing joint heads for human resources, IT and legal and democratic services, we can reduce the cost of senior management structures for both councils and generate significant ongoing annual savings.

"It will also support the work necessary for the potential replacement of Dorset’s councils with two new authorities, by April 2019.”

This is not the first time the two authorities have worked together to provide services. There is already a joint executive director for corporate services and joint chief financial officer for Bournemouth and Poole councils.

Both authorities have also recently approved plans to create joint tourism and library services in an attempt to save nearly £1million.