COUNCIL bosses are targeting teenage truants in a hard-hitting campaign and warning them "skiving is the road to nowhere".

Lancashire County Council has teamed up with Lancashire Police to launch the campaign to highlight truancy and its links to juvenile crime.

Two billboard posters will be placed at sites across across East Lancashire.

Both featuring the image of a pupil with a stark messages Skiving -- the Road to Nowhere and Bunking Off -- Missing Out.

County Coun, Alan Whittaker, cabinet member for education, said: "The posters form part of a larger campaign to tackle truancy and the related problems of juvenile crime in the community.

"It is vitally important that our children receive the education they are entitled to and this can only happen if they attend school regularly."

County Coun Ruth Henig added: "The poster campaign backs up the ongoing truancy sweeps we carry out with the police, which are held in hot spots around Lancashire.

"I can't emphasise enough the importance of school attendance. If children are out of school there is the potential for them to become involved in, or be the victims of, crime."

Chief Inspector Mick Marren, head of Lancashire Police's Community Safety Department, said: "We are delighted to be involved in this initiative, which clearly highlights all the work we and our partners are doing to deal with the problems of truancy.

"Juvenile nuisance often leads to crime which is why this campaign is so important."

The posters have been designed and produced in-house by the County Council and will be located in Colne, Brierfield, Burnley, Accrington, Haslingden, Nelson, Rawtenstall and Leyland.

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said it waged an ongoing campaign against truancy.