One-tenth of technical services staff at Western Isles Council want to be considered for redundancy.

It has been revealed that 21 employees out of 218 technical staff have expressed an interest in taking a voluntary package to leave their job. The local authority is planning to cut staff numbers in a bid to make cutbacks and develop a slimmer, more efficient, technical department.

Letters were sent to all technical personnel, including blue and white-collar workers, across the Western Isles recently. The deadline has now passed and the council has revealed that 10 per cent of staff would choose to go.

It follows a desperate urgent requirement to make year-on-year cutbacks of five per cent to save £14.5 million within three years. Other council departments will suffer cuts in jobs as well as not filling vacancies.

A council spokesman said: "The technical services department has been undertaking some restructuring in order to focus on the efficient operation of service delivery elements. The department has sought expressions of interest from employees who may wish to take up the option of voluntary retirement or redundancy.

"Final decisions will not be taken until the end of April."

It is understood that some of the council's loss-making commercial services unit - which competes with the private sector - is being abolished. The unit that runs the council's business of commercial and technical trades fell into the red by £365,000 last year.

In an effort to cut the losses, the council has opted to try to run the new structure in-house directly by technical services bosses, although it is supposed to be an arms-length operation. Late last year, local authority watchdog Audit Scotland highlighted that the council had broken its legal obligation to ensure that its building maintenance trading section did not make a loss.

The building unit returned a £240,000 loss over the last three-year rolling period, despite its statutory requirement to at least break even. It means that the council is subsidising the loss - something it would not do for a rival private company.

The auditor said a review of the arrangement would assess if the council should continue to try to run its own skilled trades business, which competes with local contractors.