UNISON officials have reacted angrily to a report that catering staff may face redundancy.

It is predicted that there will be 300 fewer primary school children in east Cleveland over the coming year and that the trend will continue.

The Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council report said a reduction in catering staff will be helped by natural wastage.

The report to today's cabinet meeting said: "It is likely that this will not be sufficient to achieve the savings required, in which case it will be necessary to look for redundancies."

Unison spokesman John McCormack said he was dismayed by the report.

He said: "There should have been consultation with Unison before the report was sent out. It will be a bit late after the cabinet meeting.

"The options of early retirement, voluntary redundancy and redeployment within another department all have to be explored before redundancy."

Councillor Steve Kay said: "We are not looking to make our employees redundant, but reserve our right to use the redundancy process as a last resort."

He said that if there were redundancies, there would be consultation with unions.

He said: "Redundancy is only one possible solution to this problem. We are looking at a whole range of strategies to tackle the budget deficit."