COMMUNITY representatives are up in arms following news that Thurrock Council may centralise its street and park wardens.

The move has angered many of Thurrock's communities who feel the wardens, introduced over two years' ago, are beginning to make real progress in improving the borough.

Terry Piccolo, Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham's HOPE forum representative, has handed over a petition with 406 signatures opposing the centralisation, to portfolio holder for crime and disorder, Pam Pearse, and hopes that by flagging up the opposition to the scheme early, the plans will be scrapped.

He said: "We feel that the benefits of the street warden system, which is to build links with the youth in the community, would be lost if they were all centralised. They would then become no more than community police officers which the youth will not respect.

"We hope that by giving coun Pearse this information, prior to her making her decision, she will not be in a position where the complaints come in after the decision has been made and it's possibly too late."

Street wardens were brought in to promote safety in the community by patrolling the borough regularly, reporting environmental problems and developing links with residents, youths and community groups.

In their bid to clean up the borough they deal with abandoned vehicles and shopping trolleys, graffiti, fly-posting and fly-tipping.

Mr Piccolo says out that the two wardens in the Corringham and Stanford area have finally gained the trust of the community, in particular the young people living in the area, and to take them away now would undermine all the hard work they have put in.

He said: "It's taken our wardens time to build up relationships with the youngsters. Now the kids will go to the table tennis club set up by the wardens and they will go to their quizzes, all because of this build up of relationships. It is this that makes them so effective, not their coats and badges of authority.

"If they were to be centralised they will be used as a herd of sheep, sent to areas of need, instead of being dedicated to a particular area." Coun Pearse, however, has reasserted that plans to merge the street and park wardens are still in their infancy.

She said: "The integration of the wardens services is being considered at the moment, but as are a number of other proposals. The council has a duty to ensure that all services are continuously reviewed in relation to performance and delivery.

"We are looking to improve delivery and to ensure we focus the skills and resources available effectively in line with our commitment to a safer, cleaner and greener Thurrock as a whole."

Leader of the council, Anne Cheale, added: "We were elected to put an increased focus on crime and anti-social behaviour issues in the borough. "To that end, we are now working much closer with the police to establish how we can better deploy our combined resources to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour issues. As part of this we are reviewing how better integration of the work of our street and park wardens might support these objectives."