MORE than £500,000 has been wiped off the value of the pension fund for council employees in Lancashire after money was invested in the now defunct Railtrack.

Today, Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans urged the government to remember that it wasn't just the fat cats who were suffering as a result of putting Railtrack, the body which runs the rail network, into administration, but people on the street too.

Lancashire County Council runs the pension fund for employees at county and district councils across the county.

Some of the money put into the fund is used to invest in other things, with the intention of using the profit to give back to the pensioners when they become eligible.

At the time of the suspension of Railtrack shares, Lancashire County Council's pension fund had 258,318 shares in Railtrack worth £2.80 each

As a result of the suspension, the value has plummeted to just 70pence -- wiping off £542,468 of the pension fund's value.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "The Local Government Pension Scheme is a Statutory Pension Scheme, which guarantees the pensions of local government employees, regardless of the performance of the investments in the Fund.

"Therefore, individual employees will not be affected by the collapse of Railtrack. The estimated loss to the Pension Fund is small in relative terms, 0.03 per cent of the value of the Fund. The current value of the Lancashire Fund is £2.3billion."

But Mr Evans said a letter to him from the fund confirmed that the loss to the fund was 'significant.'

Mr Evans said: "Mr Byers and the Prime Minister said only fat cats would be affected.

"This is not the case. Money has been lost by a pension fund. It works for the people who pay in to it, so I cannot see how they will not be affected.

"The ordinary man in the street has been hit very hard and the Government needs to come to account."