The council will cut the number of directors from six to four, and its heads of service from 29 to 19.

The number of managers in human resources will be slashed from 11 to five.

Kirklees plans to make 1,500 of its 11,200 non-school staff redundant over the next three years.

The purge comes as the council tries to cut its budget by 20 per cent to cope with an expected 20 per cent reduction in government funding over the next five years.

The initial round of job cuts is expected to save the council up to £2m. but Chief executive Rob Vincent said he could not put a figure on what these redundancy packages might cost.

He said they would have access to their pensions and statutory severance pay.

"It's basic stuff. No deals are being made."

Mr Vincent said a merger was planned for the department of regeneration with the department of environment, transport and property, to be phased in over two years.

But he said this would not affect the regeneration planned for Dewsbury.

He added: "This is designed to strengthen regeneration and over the next two years there will be two directors overseeing it."

Also merging are highways, street cleaning, grounds maintenance, refuse collection and community rangers, which will come under the heading Street Scene. Organisation development will be merged with finance.

Mr Vincent said it had not yet been decided who would go and who would stay.

Meanwhile, the council awaits the outcome of an offer of voluntary retirements for staff. Mr Vincent added: "We have to go through the process of getting the right people into the right slots."

When asked if the top brass being made redundant could be re-employed as consultants he said he could not rule this out but that it was not expected.

Council leader Mehboob Khan said: "Whoever wins the next general election there will be inevitable cuts in local council funding.

"Early and decisive action will avoid potentially much deeper cuts in the future, and potentially much higher levels of council tax.

"It is not a matter of cutting costs and services to the bone, taking this action will allow us to be a more efficient.

"We will do all we can to avoid compulsory redundancies, but it is inevitable that cuts in funding of the size we are expecting will mean a smaller workforce.

"I am determined that we will come out of this process as an organisation which provides better value for money, and more responsive to local people."