Essex County Council is considering cutting £90million from its budget.

Outline plans for the 2012/13 budget have been drawn up by council officers.

Councillors said they couldn't rule out the possibility of service cuts across the board and job losses.

However, deputy leader David Finch said the authority hoped to save much of the money by changing the way its services are run and at the same time improving them.

Mr Finch, who is also responsible for finance, said: "The council's aim remains to minimise cuts to services and maximise efficiencies, but it is inevitable that we will have to take some further difficult decisions in order to ensure that we can focus our scarce resources on those services of highest priority to the public."

FULL STORY IN WEDNESDAY'S PAPER