The council has approved the redundancy applications of a mix of full-time and part-time employees.

Chief executive Brendan McGrath announced in February the council needed to cut the jobs to cope with estimations it would lose $40 million in income over the next 10 years.

The Victorian government’s decision to cap rates at 2.5 per cent and the federal government’s reduction in grants had led to the losses.

The community wellbeing department will lose the most staff with six redundancies, followed by four from infrastructure services and two each from the corporate services and development services departments.

Four of the community wellbeing employees taking redundancies worked in the aged care and disability sector, which had been under review.

The remaining 19 women working in the sector will continue negotiating to keep their jobs within council, rather than being offloaded to a private organisation.

Twenty per cent of the council’s redundancies came from management positions.

Staff held positions across the Wangaratta Government Centre, Visitor Information Centre, Wangaratta Children’s Services Centre, Newman Street Depot, Wangaratta Art Gallery and the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre.

“This has been an entirely voluntary process and I want to wish the successful staff well in the next phase of their lives,” Mr McGrath said.

The staff will leave over the next three months. Redundancy packages were offered as part of the “our future” project, which also included using cheaper contracts and better technology to save the council money.

“We have been looking at all areas of our business to see how we can work more efficiently and still deliver the services our community values,” Mr McGrath said.

“Employee expenses are council’s single biggest cost, with more than $23 million spent in the 2014-15 financial year.”