WIRRAL’S Tory leader claims a “secret deal” has been made to protect the council’s trade union bosses.

Councillor Jeff Green said he was “horrified” that at a time when nearly 3,000 town hall staff have been warned in letters to their home that their jobs are at risk, £290,000 has been put in the budget to pay the wages and expenses of full-time union officials.

What makes this even more galling, he said, is that when his Conservative group was running the council last year they had cancelled payments to union officers, believing the unions rather than the taxpayer should cover the costs.

The ruling Labour group said the union money is back in the budget merely as an "option" and that  nothing has been agreed yet.

Councillor Green said he only discovered the cash had been reinstated when he asked for a breakdown of any growth areas in the council’s “austerity” budget for next year - which is aiming to cut spending by nearly £40m through radically reducing services and making at least 500 staff redundant.

He said: “When I saw this I was horrified.

"At a time when 2,919 of our workers have been told their jobs are at risk, it seems the only jobs that are safe are those of full-time union officials.

“It’s clear a secret deal has been done between the Labour administration and the unions to put this money back in the budget.

“I have nothing against the trade unions, but they are wealthy organisations and I strongly believe they should pay the wages of their own officials, not expect the long-suffering taxpayers of Wirral to foot the bill."

He continued: “Also, I do not remember the administration asking the people for their views on this during their much-vaunted budget consultations.

"They didn’t ask because they knew what the voters’ answer would be – an emphatic NO.”

Labour group deputy leader Cllr George Davies said: "At this present moment the money is only there as an option.

"Every single item of council business is being gone through line by line and whether they will be included when the final decisions are made has yet to be seen.

"Some very serious decisions will have to be made about the future of this council. It may be that people will not accept certain things, and that will have to be taken into account."