Three senior managers at Leicester City Council have taken ‘gardening leave', following a pre-Christmas ‘night of the long knives' overseen by the city's directly-elected mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby.

Sir Peter is behind efforts to make annual £1.1m savings by streamlining the top two tiers of authority management, a review process – now in its final stages – which could see seven of the top 25 posts axed.