TEACHERS have called for an independent investigaton into a controversial redeployment scheme.

Staff facing the axe claim that they were given ‘repeated’ promises that there would be no redundancies as part of Blackburn with Darwen Council's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Teacher Peter Rush, who presented a petition calling for an independent investigation to Blackburn with Darwen’s Council Forum, claimed the authority had put in place no workforce strategy to prevent redundancies, which 119 teachers and support staff from Beardwood Humanities Co- llege, Crosshill School and Fernhurst School now face.

He said the authority had demonstrated a ‘careless cynicism about employee welfare and a culture of denial.’ Teachers facing redundancy believe they were ‘seriously misled’ by the council about jobs after the BSF scheme was launched.

Mr Rush said: “When the authority told us they were going to open a redeployment window, we asked would this mean we were looking at redundancies?

“The response from the authority was unequivocal: there would be no redundancies. This was not a contraction of services, it was an expansion of services and no-one would be made redundant.

“Even a suggestion that a round of voluntary redundancies might be a good idea was rejected as completely unnecessary.

“But later, when the consultation period was announced, we were told we were automatically at risk of redundancy, if on a redeployment list. The very issues we had been prevented from discussing previously were re-presented back to us as evidence of our own lack of foresight.

“No-one with a scintilla of foresight who knew the real situation could in all truth issue such assurances as we received without realising they were misleading us.”

At the meeting, Coun Maureen Bateson, who oversees children’s services, said Mr Rush’s points would be examined at an executive board meeting.

She said: “There has been a reduction in teacher numbers because of reduced school budgets.

“Schools have not recruited at the same levels as in the past because there has been uncertainty and a risk of redundancy.

“I must also stress that individual schools manage their own budgets and appointments.”