West Lothian Council will cut more than 140 jobs as it tries to find £20m of savings in two years.

Councillors agreed their revenue budget for 2016-17 this week and revealed it would have to scrap 141 full-time positions by 2018,

There will be no compulsory redundancies, however, with council leader John McGinty saying staffing reductions will be achieved through retirements, the end of some fixed-term contracts and staff turnover.

The local authority needs to make more than £20m of savings between 2016-17 and 2017-18. In the next financial year, the council plans to claw back £11m of that figure.

The administration described this as "one of the largest ever cuts to the council’s budget within any one year".

Changes will be made to existing services and a review into the council’s corporate management team and admin support staff will take place. There are also plans to make cuts on overtime for non-contractual staff.

The council has pledged to use its £386m revenue budget for 2016-2017 to fund local services such as roads, education and social care.

It said it wants to protect services for vulnerable members of the community.

The local authority will also invest nearly £1m of additional funding to support parents, young people and offer housing payment top-ups for those affected by welfare reforms.

Mr McGinty said: "We have always been honest and open about the need to make changes to council services so that we can balance our budget with less funding available.

"By law, the council must balance its budget and we are not different to any household in that we can only spend the money we have available.

"We will always aim to do this in the best way possible for local residents and communities."

He added: "We are a well-run council and we have focused on planning ahead for these very difficult times. By setting a three-year budget last year we were able to plan our savings in advance.

"We are prioritising the services that matter most to local people and we have agreed a budget that focuses on and meets the needs of local people."