HALF of Hyndburn's threatened neighbourhood wardens had their festive period ruined after being told they would be out of a job by spring.

There are 12 warden positions in the borough, but only 11 are filled, and now five have been told they will be made redundant next year.

Labour group leader Councillor Jean Battle said it had been insensitive to give the wardens their redundancy notices just before Christmas.

She said: "What an awful Christmas present for them to be told they will be out of a job by Easter. Losing the wardens is going to have a devastating effect on the four deprived wards that they work in.

"They keep an eye on people and they do a lot of work with young people.

"The six remaining wardens can't possibly cover the four communities in the same way."

The wardens work in Central, Barnfield, Springhill and Church wards, patrolling areas.

They spot litter and abandoned cars and hand out on-the-spot fines.

The cost of keeping the wardens, put in place in 2001, is about £300,000 per year but Government funding has run out.

Coun Battle added: "I think they are jumping the gun giving them notice before the possibility of using money left from underspending on projects funded by the Single Regeneration Budget and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund has been investigated.

"Now that they have been given their notice they will quite rightly be looking for other jobs.

"This means that even if the money is found eventually to continue the service, we will probably have lost the team that had been trained and established."

Council leader Coun Peter Britcliffe said the timing had been unfortunate, but the notices were a matter of procedure.

He said: "We are still working behind the scenes to do something about the situation.

"But we have found it very difficult because the partners working with us aren't prepared to provide any more funding.

"It is unrealistic to think we can put it on to the council tax, especially as they only work in four areas of the borough."

Government funding for the scheme will be halved next year and will dry up completely by 2006.

Hyndburn Borough Council agreed to put up £150,000 and urged other organisations in the borough's Community Safety Partnership, including the police and the fire service, to help come up with the rest. But the funding has not been forthcoming.