TV licensing staff in Darlington have been told to expect redundancies early next year, it was revealed last night.

Nineteen workers at Capita's offices in Mowden Hall, Staindrop Road, have been told they could lose their jobs as the company plans to centralise its TV Licensing operation in Darwin, Lancashire.

A Capita spokesman said: "They have been told that their existing jobs in Darlington will not continue after the end of January.

"We are making every effort to find them other employment opportunities, either in the Capita group or elsewhere. Redundancy will be a last resort.

"There is already a large operation in Darwin and we are centralising some of our operations. There are more jobs appearing in Darwin for TV Licensing and other contracts that we have."

In February, Capita signed a £500m contract with the BBC to administer TV Licensing. TV Licensing staff formerly based in Sunderland moved to Capita's Darlington office in July.