COUNCIL staff have been warned about sending abusive e-mails after a senior officer inadvertently forwarded copies of an "offensive" message to hundreds of colleagues.

Cath Hitchen, an assistant director for Blackburn with Darwen Council's education and lifelong learning department, meant to forward private comments onto her boss, education director Peter Morgan.

But she mistakenly hit the 'reply all' button on her e-mail, meaning every member of staff in the department saw her response to a youth worker's concerns about an employee survey.

The council today refused to comment on whether any disciplinary action was being taken. But it is understood the youth worker involved has decided not to make a complaint after speaking to senior management.

And a spokesman confirmed staff had been reminded to consider the appropriateness of e-mails before sending them.

Conservative group leader Colin Rigby said: "If this e-mail had been about me I would have found it offensive. Staff have been informed again about the appropriate use of e-mail.

"I don't think you can ever stop this sort of thing until people start thinking what goes in an e-mail is important.

"People too often reply on e-mail before they've thought it through and that's how situations like this occur. I dare say the senior officer involved is very embarrassed and has learnt her lesson."

Tory Coun Paul McGurty said: "The best start for being a better employer would be to make an example of this and make sure it never happens again."

Some staff within the education department, however, have been left fuming.

One, who asked not to be named, said: "What kind of example does this set? I think it would have been very different if a normal member of staff had sent this out to everyone in the department."

The youth worker expressed concern after Mr Morgan sent out a group e-mail urging staff to take part in an employee survey.

Blackburn with Darwen Council today said staff had nothing to worry about with the survey -- saying it was an attempt to improve internal communications and work out how to become better employers.

Phil Watson, chief executive of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said he could not comment on what action had been taken, but said: "The staff survey is an attempt to discover how we can improve our internal communications and become better employers and hence improve our services to the public.

"It is important staff give us clear and honest feedback and the survey is sent to people's homes so that they have the privacy to complete it fully. It does not infringe on data protection law or issues of confidentiality."

Mrs Hitchen said all comments on the matter had to go through the council press office.