A COUNCIL will reduce its departments from seven to five later this year.

Officers at Harrogate Borough Council hope the restructuring will save money and streamline services.

The changes include combining the finance department with the administration department to become the department of resources.

The health and housing department, leisure and amenity services department and the street cleansing section will also merge to become the department of community services.

A department of development services will be created from the technical services, economic development and estates department.

A department of corporate policy and improvement will also be set up.

A council spokeswoman confirmed that no redundancies would result from the changes, which will come into force on April 1.

Council leader Councillor Mike Gardner said: "We hope that this new structure will work seamlessly and residents will continue to be provided with first class services. In fact, in the future, they should be better."