Fourteen jobs could be lost at the Parks and Gardens Department to save nearly �750,000.

The Parks and Gardens Department is losing �730,000 a year providing services for departments like Education, Sport and Culture and House.

It is hoped most people who lose their jobs will be re-employed in the Public Services Department or take redundancy.

Huge cost

Senator Phillip Ozouf said the losses "cannot be tolerated" and he aimed to reduce the loss by �300,000 in 2005.

Unions believe further cuts in other departments will be announced next week.

The move came as the States attempts to slash spending by �20m a year.

Hundreds of public sector posts are set to go over the next five years.

A report in February compared the quality and cost of services like housing and health with places like Guernsey, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.

It concluded that civil servants were delivering excellent services to islanders, but at a huge cost.