HYNDBURN councillors have vowed to put pressure on the council to find a way to continue funding for the borough's community wardens.

At a meeting of the Community Safety and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee last night it was revealed that not only had letters been sent to organisations involved in the Community Safety Partnership, but also to other organisations that benefit from the service provided by the community wardens, including housing associations.

Deputy leader of the council, Councillor Tony Dobson, said: "We are not leaving any rock or stone unturned to make sure that the wardens remain in place."

However, no response to the call for funding had yet been received from any organisation.

Some councillors were still unhappy that the funding crisis had only come to light at the eleventh hour.

Coun David Myles said: "We have known that this would happen for three years and I think we should have been conducting ourselves in a more professional manner.

"When you look at past cabinet papers it has been mentioned that we will need to secure an amount of funding for this by a certain date.

"The targets have been there all the time, but nothing has been done about it."

An officer from Hyndburn First, the council's regeneration arm, said work had been done to find funding but had not been successful.

He added that at the end of the recent crisis meeting he had not been hopeful that the partners would come up with funding.

Tom Parsons, Chairman of the Neighbourhood Wardens Advisory Committee, agreed that something should have been done sooner.

He said: "About 18 months ago it went to cabinet that the funding for the service should be put into the mainstream budget.

"It was the lack of consultation that has led us to this point."

Mr Parson urged councillors to do what they could to support the efforts to find funding.

He said: "In the two or three years that the wardens have been in post they have built up a rapport with the public.

"It is difficult to collate what they are worth, what savings are made by having them there and what they contribute, but as a body they have reassured a lot of people on the street, in their houses and in their neighbourhoods."

The committee's recommendations will go before the cabinet.