Estate wardens funded by a regeneration project are being told their jobs are safe despite the council starting a similar service in the area where they work.

Brighton and Hove City Council has been reviewing and restructuring its warden service - the team which maintains council estates and properties across the city.

Many council blocks and estates already have wardens who live in the communities they look after.

Under the review, they will no longer look after their own areas but work across the city.

The restructuring has upset many residents who said they are losing their dedicated wardens to other areas.

Unison has been involved in talks with the staff and managers but fears about job security have spread to a separate warden service operating in east Brighton.

A team of three wardens operates in Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb as part of a service provided by the Government-funded regeneration organisation eb4U.

The wardens work with residents and report problems such as vandalism or graffiti to other agencies.

Last week the council sent a letter to residents about the changes in its estate warden service.

The leaflet told them the council's restructured service will include community wardens acting as good neighbours to help with housing problems.

Wardens will also travel around removing graffiti and rubbish.

Some residents in East Brighton feared their existing eb4U team would be disbanded because of the duplication of services.

However, the city council said the teams would work together and jobs would not be lost.

A spokesman for eb4U said it had been consulted about the changes.

He said: "As a result, good practice developed by the eb4U neighbourhood warden project has been incorporated into the estate warden role, which will concentrate on improving the environment for residents living in blocks of flats."

Imogen Wallace, eb4U neighbourhood warden manager, said: "This is the result of some excellent partnership working between eb4U and the city council. It is one of the first examples of mainstreaming the skills and experience which have been developed by our neighbourhood wardens and utilising them in this new service."