CONFIDENTIAL details of Hyndburn Council staff were left blowing in the breeze after a gust of wind carried them away when they were being taken to be destroyed.

Union officials have called for an investigation after P60 forms were found lying in Blackburn Road, Accrington, by Alan Rosthorn while he was walking in the Willows Lane area.

Council bosses said an immediate search had recovered most of the missing papers, which were being taken for destruction as they were more than five years old.

Mr Rosthorn, of Countess Street, was walking along Blackburn Road near Willows Lane last Friday when he noticed the documents blowing around in the street, and picked up two of them to see what they were.

He said: "I couldn't help but notice hundreds of items of paper blowing around the floor. I picked two of them up to see what they were and was amazed to see that they were old P60 forms from Hyndburn Council giving personal information about its employees such as names, addresses, dates of birth, earnings and, probably more important, National Insurance numbers.

"In today's climate of identity theft I would have thought the employers would be more careful with such information, apart from the fact that everybody else is being fined for dropping litter.

"There were hundreds of forms just lying around the street on Friday but when I went back to that area on Saturday morning there wasn't one to be seen so someone must have been to clean them all up."

Steve Watson, secretary of the Unison branch for Hyndburn Council workers, said: "Unison hopes that this will be investigated and that the council will ensure nothing like it happens again."

Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "This was an unfortunate accident as we do take the utmost care with documents of this nature. They were being taken to be securely destroyed as they were over five years old.

"However, a small number were picked up by a gust of wind. An immediate search took place and most were recovered, but it seems a couple were missed and we thank this gentleman for picking them up and returning them to us."