REDUNDANCY costs of more than £50,000 are set to be paid out by Torfaen council after a regional collaboration was ended.

Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent councils have decided to end a partnership which jointly provided Public Protection Services, with the collaboration due to officially end on November 30.

Trading standards, licensing and environmental health services were provided jointly as part of the agreement for almost four years.

The changes have resulted in Torfaen council having to undertake a management restructure within public protection.

Five managers were previously employed between the two authorities as part of the regional collaboration.

The new set up will see Torfaen employ three team managers, but due to the wider scope of responsibilities, the council says it is necessary for a redundancy to be made.

"Because of the increased scope of responsibilities assigned to the new managers role the review identified that existing managers would not be able to be directly appointed i.e. slot in," a council report says.

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"Having discussed the scope of the new role relevant colleagues, it has been mutually agreed that the most appropriate way forward would be to offer a redundancy and to seek to recruit to the new position in line with Torfaen County Borough Council recruitment policies."

The cost of redundancy to a manager will be £51,060, funded from the council's corporate reserves, if approved as an executive member decision on Wednesday.

An internal consultation supported the new management structure, a council report says.

"The service is going through a lot of change and a new management structure will help invigorate and develop the service for the long term," the report adds.

"Redundancy is not done lightly and would not be proposed unless there was certainty for the authority and the service it was the right thing to do."

The service partnership was formed amid the Welsh Government asking councils to consider mergers – with Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent’s bid to join forces one of three to be turned down in 2015.

It also allowed both councils to find savings at the time, enabling voluntary redundancies of Torfaen council’s then head of Public Protection and the team leader for licensing services.

However since local elections in 2017 there has been a "change in approach to front-line service deliver" in Torfaen, shifting from collaboration to in-house delivery of services, a Blaenau Gwent council report says.