THE leader of Cumbria County Council is hoping to save cash by reducing the number of council members.

Conservative Jim Buchanan wants to cut the number of councillors by around a quarter to make a saving of £250,000 a year.

But Ian Stewart, Liberal Democrat councillor for the Kent Estuary, claims the change would leave Cumbrians under represented.

There are currently 84 members sitting on the council.

The council leader wants to reduce that number to 60.

Coun Stewart said the cuts would weaken the authority with councillors covering areas with big populations spread out over large geographical areas.

He claims the monetary saving would not justify the implications of a smaller council.

“The geography of each councillor’s ward would have to be larger,” he said.

“Would we be able to successfully represent people within such large areas?

“It might mean we would need full time councillors and you wouldn’t get away with paying them £8,500 a year.

“You would only get older retired people who could afford to be councillors and you won’t have a proportional mix of people on the council.”

But Coun Buchanan said there is room for improvement.

He said: “I think we could make the wards much more equal in size. There is also room for us to increase numbers in some divisions.

“Other councils of an equal size to ours have already done this so it is quite manageable.

“The saving we would make is the equivalent wage of around 15 front line social workers.”

If changes are approved they will come into effect in 2013.

At the next CCC cabinet meeting members will vote on whether to invite the Boundary Commission in to assess the potential changes.

But Coun Stewart said the proposal will not receive much backing.

“At the end of the day we would save a fraction of what we spend each year.

"I think it’s a bit of a gimmick and I know there are some Labour and Conservative councillors that have reservations.”

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