Councillors expressed concern about the impact on services and staff after learning nearly one fifth of posts at Cheshire East Council are vacant.

The council currently employees 2,692 full-time equivalent staff.

The vacancy rate has increased from 16.6 per cent to 17.4 per cent in the last three-month period.

At the time of writing there are 49 posts being advertised on the council's website, excluding teaching, and these include admin assistants, housing standards officer, social workers, arborist, gatekeeper, librarian and landscape officer.

The council is currently undergoing a transformation programme, which involves changing the way it works in a bid to save nearly £100 million over the next four years.

Knutsford councillor Tony Dean (Con) said: "Are we addressing the fact that we currently have massive vacancies with our current organisational structure?"

"Does transformation include working more efficiently in the future and needing less people, therefore that 17 per cent of vacancy rate will go down, hopefully to zero?"

Executive director of resources Ashley Hughes said the vacancy rate was too high and that workforce and making efficient use of digital are two major strands within the transformation programme.

"Digital enablement will support people to do more with less," he said.

He added: "We are currently looking at actively recruiting, particularly in the children's service, to ensure that we convert good agency [staff] to permanent and fill vacancies as fast as we can."

Conservative group leader Stewart Gardiner said if the council was losing staff because they were unhappy 'this is something we should be concerned about'.

He also raised concerns about the impact of holding vacant posts saying the council was 'not making sure the organisation is running as efficiently as it should do'.

He added: "Secondly, for me, far more significant, we are asking other people within the organisation to pick up the slack."

Council leader Nick Mannion (Lab) said all staff members who leave the authority should be encouraged to take part in an exit interview.

Wilmslow councillor David Jefferay (Ind) raised concerns about foster carers quitting and said exit interviews should also be considered for them.

"I've had cause to speak to a foster parent who'd left Cheshire East to go to an agency due to dissatisfaction," he said.

Councillors were told an update on the workforce and the transformation programme would be given at a future meeting.