THURROCK Council is considering a major shake up of its “top heavy” senior management structure.

The Labour cabinet was expected to approve a consultation on the reshuffle at its latest meeting on Wednesday.

At present the council has heads of service reporting to five corporate directors, who then in turn report to the chief executive, Graham Farrant.

The new plan, submitted to the cabinet by Mr Farrant, would see the removal of the corporate director roles, and the creation of seven directors reporting straight to him.

The council said the shake-up will mean there are two less senior members of staff in total, saving more than £200,000.

Mr Farrant said: “At the moment we have a complex structure, corporate directors, a director and a wide range of heads of service, I want to simplify that and be more responsive to the needs of residents.

“This is the first stage of creating a new, modern and slim-line Thurrock Council where the key services are directly represented at the top table. “Housing, in particular, is key to how our 10,000 and more tenants’ view the council and this structure elevates the service.

“It will mean we have a leaner council. There will be two less people in the overall senior management team, with more reporting directly to me. It will not mean more people earning higher salaries, in fact if you have a look at the list of top earners we have to publish annually, that list will be smaller in a year’s time.”

He added: “These plans are not set in stone and I’m sure there will be some tweaks after the consultation period.”

The new proposed directorates are the delivery unit, environmental services, finance and corporate governance, housing, people, planning and transportation, and a temporary transformation directorate.

The plans also include a new assistant chief executive position.

Apart from the people and the finance directorates the council said all the others would be smaller than they are currently.