Council and police chiefs say they will aim to protect front line services as they try to find millions of pounds in savings.

A number of managers at Wiltshire Council are expected to be made redundant while the police force says it expects to continue the freeze on recruiting officers.

Both organisations are awaiting the details of the coalition government’s funding cuts but have already started work on identifying savings.

Wiltshire Council, which has a workforce of 4,520 not including schools staff, is anticipating making savings of £100 million over the next four years while Wiltshire Police is assuming that it will have to save £17 million over the next four years.

Andrew Kerr, chief executive of Wiltshire Council, said: “The council is working on a business plan that sets out how the council will continue to protect vulnerable people, particularly the ageing population and children, and invest money into front line services including leisure and waste.”

He said one area under review was management costs and structures to reduce the number of managers in the council and to cut back on using agency and consultancy staff.

The Wiltshire Police Federation is concerned that there has been no recruitment of officers for more than a year but Christopher Hoare, chairman of Wiltshire Police Authority, said that is a policy which is likely to continue.

The number of officers in the county has fallen since the start of the year from 1,180 to 1,155 due to officers leaving or retiring.

Mr Hoare said: “The recruitment freeze will continue through the year and will probably be longer. We will do as much as we can to make savings in back office functions, such as administration, but that may not be enough.”

Gavin Brooks, regional organiser at the union Unison, said the proposed savings at Wiltshire Council were unprecedented.

He said: “The scale of the cuts is just massive. The council say they want to make the savings without impacting on front line services but it’s going to be incredibly difficult to achieve that.”

Meanwhile, the council’s Cabinet heard on Tuesday there was an £11.7million deficit compared with the cash flow forecast for last year.