HYNDBURN Council should have been working on ways to fund its threatened neighbourhood wardens three years ago, it was claimed today.

Cash for the wardens is due to be cut in half next year and will dry up completely by 2006.

But a member of the council's Labour opposition group has claimed that, when the authority first applied for funding to allow the wardens to be put in place, they knew they would have to find alternative cash a few years down the line.

Coun David Myles, deputy leader of the Labour group, claims that public documents issued at the time show the council were aware they had a responsibility to budget for the wardens, in a process known as mainstreaming.

Mainstreaming is when funding is taken over by the council and Government cash comes to an end.

But Coun Peter Britcliffe, leader of the council, has dismissed the reports and instead blamed the funding process for the wardens crisis, not Hyndburn Council's administration.

Coun Myles said: "This shows that the council had committed itself from the very beginning to mainstream the wardens into its budget. I feel they have known since 2001 and that no work has been done. I just think it's absolutely ridiculous and they are running away from their responsibility."

After the funding crisis was revealed last week, Coun Britcliffe called for members of the local Community Safety Partnership - a body made up of, among others, the police authority and the county council - to help fund the wardens.

But Coun Myles claims the documents shows the council was aware of its responsibility to have alternate funding in place as long ago as 2001.

In one report to the council's cabinet from September 10, 2003, it says in a section entitled 'budget implications' that: "It is important for the council to engage its partners in discussions regarding partner contributions to contribute to the costs of continuing the wardens' service."

But the council and the Community Safety Partnership have only just agreed this week to request funding from the partnership's members.

But Coun Britcliffe said the issue had not been forgotten over the years, and today he claimed the money should have been gradually phased out, allowing the council more time to pick up the bill.