CIVIL servants in Titchfield threatened with the axe have warned they are considering strike action.

Workers at the Office of National Statistics may strike for the second time in three months after management went back on a promise not to force job losses.

In May chief executive Len Cook assured staff that plans for hundreds of job cuts under a relocation scheme had been scrapped. But in his spending review Gordon Brown resurrected the scheme and ordered ONS bosses to cut 600 jobs from the south-east by 2007/08 and 850 by 2010.

Union leaders say that staff feel let down by management. Earlier this year they went on strike over pay.

Rose Willis from Prospect union said: "It is very possible that strike action will now be on the agenda."

The relocation will see jobs moved to Bristol or South Wales.

Meanwhile ONS has moved to quell fears among staff over an incorrect report that 250 jobs would be lost at the site.

An ONS spokesman said: "The figure of 250 is wrong. At this stage we just have a target of how many staff to relocate from the region and no exact numbers for individual sites.

"There will not be nearly as many as 250 job losses at Titchfield. The lion's share will come from London."