A senior Labour councillor has slammed a decision to withdraw more than a third of the borough's funding to the maintenance of the Mersey Valley area.

Last month's budget report revealed a decision to reduce Trafford's contribution to the Mersey Valley working committee, a partnership project with Manchester City Council, by £62,000.

Nobody from the council was able to confirm Trafford's contribution for 2006-2007, but according to a Manchester City Council source it was believed to be £168,000.

Councillor Phillip Gratrix, a Mersey Valley working committee member, says the decision could have a devastating impact on warden services.

He explained: "I'm very sad this is happening. The impact to the warden service could be felt in terms of staff costs, education work, footpath maintenance and wetlands projects.

"There must now be a serious danger of the Mersey Valley visitors' centre at Sale Water Park not being staffed anymore."

He added: "The Mersey Valley staff work for the love of the job rather than financial rewards. They are all extremely dedicated to the service and the improvements over the years have been vast.

"Former landfill sites have been completely transformed and the environment has been improved immensely with important conservation areas like Broad Ees Dole gaining national recognition."

Messenger understands council bosses are working on plans for a new in house service, but nobody was available for comment on this.

A spokeswoman told SAM this week: "Negotiations are still ongoing internally and with Manchester to decide a way forward."

But Cllr Gratrix fears any decision could seriously jeopardise cross border cooperation on future environmental projects with Manchester City Council.

He explained: "I've been on the Mersey Valley committee since the early 1990s and it's always been a real pleasure.

"The bottom line is that we will probably have a situation where we'll no longer have this joint committee and this would be to the detriment of people in Trafford."

A spokeswoman for Manchester City Council said: "We value the Mersey Valley Partnership and have no plans to cut its budget. We hope to continue this relationship with Trafford Council."