THE use of lease cars by Southend Council officers is to be phased out to save cash.

This year, the council will stop anyone from joining the lease car scheme, which will save £50,000.

The current scheme works by staff paying towards the cost of hiring the vehicle depending on how much they use it, while the council meets the rest.

A Southend Council spokesman said it has 148 lease cars and it has been reviewing the scheme since before the austerity cuts were announced by the Government.

The car lease scheme is open to officers who earn more than £28,000 or drive more than 4,500 miles a year on business.

Chief executive Rob Tinlin said the council was looking at alternatives such as pool cars or a salary sacrifice scheme, where staff give up some of their salary in return for a non-cash benefit, such as the use of a company car.

Mr Tinlin said: “We have already frozen any new leasing. If staff are contractually entitled to use them, they will continue.

“We are looking at other options which are more cost-effective in allowing staff to access cars.”

The move is one of many in-house corporate savings to cut £500,000 from the budget.

About £225,000 will be saved though cutting down the council’s performance and improvement team, as the council will have less inspections from now on.

The demise of regeneration company Renaissance Southend, which closed at the end of 2010, will save the council £125,000, which it used to pay every year to keep it running.