THE community wardens patrolling parts of Basingstoke and Deane are facing the axe.

The award-winning 20-strong team would be replaced and £120,000 redirected into five new police community support officers (PCSOs) under the proposal by the Conservative-led administration.

However, the plan has already provoked a furious response from opposition Labour councillors, with one branding it a betrayal of community safety.

The wardens were introduced by the borough's then controlling Labour-Liberal Democrat administration in December 2003. They spend most of their time patrolling to provide visibility and reassurance to residents, but also report environmental issues and contribute to community development.

In 2004, Hampshire County Council introduced eight accredited community safety officers (ACSOs) to the borough with similar powers, but also enforcement powers to tackle dog fouling and people riding bicycles on pavements.

And in April this year, Hampshire Constabulary introduced 25 PCSOs into the borough.

If the proposal is approved, three wardens would move to the council's seven-member community development team and one support officer to its community safety team. The rest would face redundancy if jobs cannot be found for them.

Borough council leader Councillor John Leek explained: "The Cabinet believes residents would prefer to know they have PCSOs throughout the borough. We also think there's some confusion between PCSOs, ACSOs and community wardens."

He said the borough would have a say where the five extra PCSOs operated and they could be used borough-wide. Community wardens are limited to nine areas.

The wardens proposal is in a three-year plan the Cabinet will consider on Tuesday, and in a community safety and community development review for the sustainable communities overview committee on November 17.

Cllr Leek said the public and the council's partner organisations are being urged to have their say on the proposal and the three-year plan as a whole.

"We recognise anything in the three-year plan is open for consultation, and where the response is 100 per cent against we would have to re-decide," he said.

Wardens patrol in Buckskin and Kempshott, South Ham, Brighton Hill, Overton and Whitchurch, Bishops Green and Tadley, Bramley and Kingsclere, Winklebury, Oakridge and Popley.

The scheme received a national award for innovation in 2004 and a distinction in warden quality standard in 2005 from the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit at the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

The proposal being considered would save the council about £255,000 a year, with the rest of its £525,000 warden employee budget going towards the new community safety initiatives. Kingfisher and Sentinel housing associations provide an extra £50,000 towards the wardens.

Labour councillors have blasted the Conservative administration's proposal.

Labour leader Cllr Gary Watts said: "We think it will have a detrimental effect on community safety. It's part of ongoing cuts across council services."

Cllr Sean Keating, who extended the warden scheme to rural areas when he was the Cabinet member for community safety in the Labour-Liberal Democrat administration, said the PCSOs would not do everything the council wanted because they worked to a police agenda.

He said: "We go from a fixed arrangement to an uncertain one and I find that appalling."

Cllr Keating claimed that community wardens were an important safety influence at a time when the police were not responding to calls to the new 101 non-emergency number. "The police response in Basingstoke is appalling and that is what we will have to rely on," he said.

He added expansion of the community development team, which deals with health, youth and minority issues, would be no substitute for people on patrol.

"This is a blatant betrayal of the people of Basingstoke in terms of community safety," he said.

Chief Inspector Jill Baldry, Hampshire Constabulary's district commander for Basingstoke and Deane, was surprised by Cllr Keating's comments and invited him to meet her to discuss his concerns.

  • The three-year council plan can be viewed at www.basingstoke.gov.uk or at the Civic Offices in London Road, Basingstoke.