RESIDENT lock-keepers in Oxfordshire will not to be replaced as part of a new savings package.

And vacant riverside lock- keepers’ homes will be rented out, in a move that threatens to reignite a row about safety.

The Environment Agency says nine lock-keeper posts on the Thames and its tributaries will not be filled, including four in Oxfordshire.

They are at Cleve, South Oxfordshire, and Grafton in West Oxfordshire – which are already vacant – and Whitchurch and Goring in South Oxfordshire, where the keepers are approaching retirement.

A plan to sell off lock-keepers’ homes three years ago was dropped after a public outcry. A powerful local campaign against the move, supported by Witney MP and then opposition leader David Cameron, resulted in the EA abandoning plans to lease out 10 out of 22 lock-keepers’ properties in the Upper Thames region.

But the EA has announced that funding cuts have forced it to look at ways of raising more income. It says that as part of a package of measures to reduce an existing £800,000 funding gap it will not “immediately replace” nine resident lock- and weir-keeper posts when they become vacant between now and the end of 2012-13.

EA spokesman Dan Taylor said: “The duties will be covered by the rest of our permanent lock- and weir-keepers and our seasonal staff. The lock houses will be rented out to generate much needed income. We estimate the overall benefit to our waterways budget to be £416,000. And we will still have 36 resident lock- and weir-keepers in post.”

The GMB union raised fears that reducing the number of lock- keepers could impact on the agency’s flood response ability.

But Mr Taylor said: “The change will have no detrimental impact on our performance, or on our ability to respond to accidents or flood incidents.”