More than 20 jobs could be lost at Colchester Council and residents face increased charges as the authority tries to plug the funding gap caused by coronavirus.

In a bid to trim £1.7 million from its budget next year, the authority is proposing a series of efficiency savings as well as a review of services.

At a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Thursday members agreed to dig deep into reserves to ease this year’s funding gap.

Next year they plan to find £1.7 million savings by increased fees and charges for services like planning, allotments and car parks.

They will also look at the potential loss of up to 27 full time posts.

The council said it expected to see its commercial income almost halve and faces losses of more than £11m this year.

Further losses are anticipated in the coming years.

The cabinet heard the council may have to use £6.2m of reserves across 2020/22, despite job cuts and savings, and still have a £2.6m budget gap for 2022/23 to plug.

David King, the council’s business and resources boss, said: “The Government has fallen short on its promise to fully compensate councils for the losses and extra costs of dealing with this unprecedented health and economic crisis.

“We appeal to them to help now and from next year onwards, as we face huge income losses not of our making.

“We can, for now, balance the books. We can continue to serve our residents well.

“But only by deep cuts to planned spend this year and because we are able, due to past prudence, to dig deep into our reserves. But we can only spend those reserves once.”

Public consultation will be undertaken with residents and other stakeholders during November.

The results of formal staff and public consultations will be discussed by cabinet, when the final budget strategy proposals are considered in January 2021.

Council leader Mark Cory added: “Like many organisations and businesses in Colchester, the council has suffered financially as a result of Covid and we need to look at transforming and how we make savings.

“The scale of the challenge means difficult decisions are inevitable, sadly.

“We will be working closely with all our staff, especially those potentially impacted by these proposals, and the unions to ensure we give them all the necessary support through this unsettling period.”