Coun David Harrison says Mansfield District Council has saved more than £300,000 in the last year because of a number of vacancies in various departments.

He raised the issue at a full council meeting last week and said staff morale could be affected if vacancies were left empty.

But Coun Roger Sutcliffe, the council's portfolio holder for resources, denied trying to save funds by not appointing new staff.

At the meeting, members approved spending £100,000 on management development for middle-managers from council reserves, along with £630,000 on trying to reduce costs for fuel and energy.

But Coun Christine Smith said not enough cash was spent on training for councillors and said members could not get planning training for 'love nor money'.

Coun Sutcliffe told the meeting: "When we were given a good rating in our last assessment, one of the comments was that we didn't have enough management development.

"Senior managers have done some of the training and it is very beneficial. Member training has got a separate budget."

Coun Sutcliffe added that when training had been arranged before members had not attended.

And Coun Phil Smith said: "The staff are our biggest asset. We have got to put resources into training them."