A PLAN of action has been drawn up to save Hyndburn's threatened neighbourhood wardens.

At a private meeting yesterday in Accrington, the council offered to put £50,000 into a fund, leaving about £110,000 left to be found.

The council met with representatives from the Community Safety Partnership, including the police authority and fire authority, and challenged them to come up with funding.

Now a letter is to be penned by community leaders, to be sent to all member organisations of the partnership, asking for financial help.

The cash would then be used as a stop-gap, to safeguard the wardens for the next financial year. Today council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "It was a very, very good meeting and at the end of the meeting we had agreed that we would explore the possibility of the wardens continuing.

"We had identified funding which will probably mean we are only looking at funding something like £110,000, which might be for the partnership to bear."

Currently the borough has 12 wardens, patrolling the four most deprived wards -- Central, Barnfield, Springhill and Church.

Next year Government funding for the wardens, who cost around £320,000 a year, will be cut in half, meaning the council and the partnership need to fund £160,000 to keep the wardens at their full strength.

The council's £50,000, identified from budget underspends, will mean £110,00 is still needed.

Today Mick Frankland, chair of the Community Safety Partnership and area commander for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, said the organisation was looking into raising the funds.

He said: "What we agreed was that I and two other members of Hyndburn Council would get together and write to all the Community Safety Partnership members to see if they could find this extra £100,000-plus as a one-off."