Another 90 people could be made redundant at the North Eastern Education Board because of budget cuts.

Planned reductions are unrealistic if services are to remain effective, the board warned.

It faces cuts worth more than £3 million this year and many schools could be in severe difficulties if they do not try to make savings, chief financial officer Hubert Taylor said.

“To make some of the expenditure savings in our central budget required by the Department of Education we would need to make a further 90 people redundant, on top of the 29 voluntary redundancies last year,” he said.

“That equates to over a third of headquarters staff and this is not realistic if the services provided are to remain effective.”

The largest cut will come from the central schools budget at just over £1.5 million.

Maintenance and curriculum support will lose a tenth of their budgets.