THE amount of cabinet members serving on Gloucestershire County Council is to be slimmed down to help save the authority thousands of pounds.

Leader of the council Cllr Mark Hawthorne has announced a revised cabinet team that will save around £17,000 in the first year and twice that in the future.

The cabinet will be reduced from 10 members to eight, with some outgoing members taking on new time-limited ‘champion roles’.

The cabinet will now consist of leader Mark Hawthorne, deputy leader and vulnerable families Paul McLain, member for finance and change Ray Theodoulou, member for communities (including fire, highways and trading standards) Will Windsor-Clive, member for economy and environment Chas Fellows, member for education and skills Jackie Hall, member for people with long term support Antonia Noble and member for health and well-being Andrew Gravells.

In addition there will be five ‘champion roles’ which will exist only until the end of each particular project. There will be a project champion for education and links to business, one for highways contract, one for waste, one for the ‘big community offer’ and one called ‘champion for change’.

There will be an allowance for the role, but this will be capped to ensure that overall the changes will save the equivalent of one cabinet member’s allowance (£17,599), increasing to two cabinet member’s allowances in future years.

Cllr Hawthorne said: "I promised to look at every option to save money – and that includes the cabinet itself. With less cabinet members and time-limited project champions, we will save taxpayer money and still get the job done."