UNIONS fear more than 1,000 jobs could be axed to help plug a Dorset County Council financial blackhole that has spiralled to £58million.

The authority says its savings target of £48.6million over a three-year period has now shot up by almost £10m.

Unions fear the latest rise could result in the loss of up to 1,000 posts over the next three years.

It has already been confirmed that 500 jobs will go in the coming year.

In November, unions predicted 750 posts would be lost in total but they are now upping that estimate to 1,000 following the revised savings target.

A council spokesman refused to confirm or deny the 1,000 figure but admitted the authority does not know how many posts could now be axed.

Initial estimates last July predicted a minimum of £30 million would be required to cope with governmentfunding cuts.

The current estimate is now almost double that.

The latest figures were revealed in a letter to the unions from the human resources department at Dorset County Council.

Head of human resources Sheralyn Huntingford wrote: “In our medium-term financial strategy we had estimated a need for budget savings of £48.6million over the three-year period 2011/12 to 2013/14, with £27 milion savings required in 2011/12.

“With the new pressures agreed at the county council meeting on December 15 and with the loss of grants, the savings target for the county council has grown to £57.7 million over the next three years with £33.8million savings required in 2011/12.”

Gary Pattison, Dorset branch secretary of the GMB union, said the figure could rise again.

He said: “Every time there’s a change in the figures there’s a potential change to the amount of job losses and the effect on public services.

“We are just watching the figures and they are just going up and up and there’s no indication of where this will end.”

Dorset County Council has said that it does not yet know how many posts will have to go in the second and third year.

Mr Pattison said: “Over the three-year period I am fairly certain there will be in excess of 1,000 posts lost.”

Pamela Jefferies, secretary of the Dorset branch of Unison, said: “These new figures put huge pressure on staff.”