THE role of community safety wardens - described as "victims of their own success" at a council meeting yesterday - is to be reassessed.

The 41 wardens based in east Cleveland have been employed during the past ten years to deal with anti-social behaviour and to keep neighbourhoods neat and tidy.

However a special meeting with the team has been set up by employers Redcar and Cleveland Council after reports that they have become "quasi-policemen".

The news was revealed during an impromptu discussion on the role of the wardens at the council's executive committee.

Dave McLuckie, lead council member for community safety, told the council that there was no chance wardens would accept a proposal to operate car park barriers.

He said: "It's not the job of wardens to operate barriers and it won't be done by them. The wardens have become victims of their own success.

"The job is expecting more and more of them. They end up in vans going from place to place and that's when they appear like policemen, but they are not acting as quasi-policemen at all.

"That is not what they are there for. We receive good reports from the public about the wardens but their role must not be diluted."

Coun Keith Pudney said: "There has been at least on occasion where they felt abandoned and feared for their own safety. We should make it clear to all concerned what they are there for."

The council meets the wardens in the New Year to discuss their role.