BLACKPOOL'S social service workers are claiming a victory after voting to cancel a series of one-day strikes planned for this month (February).

UNISON members voted on Monday night not to strike on the following day, February 13, or on two more proposed days of industrial action which would cause severe disruption to Blackpool Borough Council.

This follows a one-day strike last week which brought most of the social services administration department to a standstill.

UNISON branch secretary Tony Garnsey said his members had decided since the strike that the council had gone far enough to meet their requests.

"One of our demands has always been that the council extend the redundancy notices," said Tony.

"Now the notice period is until the end of June which gives the workers more time to find another position. "The mood at the meeting was good and the members were very happy with what they achieved last Wednesday during the strike.

"As far as we are concerned it was a victory -- it is sad that we had to strike but it appears to have worked.

"Certainly relations between us and the bosses of social services have improved and are beginning to develop in the right direction -- we are talking a lot more. Time will tell."

Coun Sue Wright, executive member for social services said she was delighted with the turn of events. "As I said last week, we have been working with the unions to get things sorted and I'm delighted that we have," she said.

"Everybody in the council has been working very hard to rectify the situation because none of us takes any pleasure from these situations.

"We have tried to meet the union on a few points about the way to deal with future possible redundancies by extending the notice period and asking more for voluntary redundancies.

"It is all about working in partnership. If we can do our best to look at what the unions are asking then we will try our best, but we can't always go that far."