HUNDREDS of people have signed a controversial petition by Worcester Labour Party to 'save' city parks, it has emerged.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the petition, which launched last month amid a furious row between the two main political parties, is garnering support from all over the city.

The Conservative leadership at the city council is looking to outsource park maintenance to a private company by 2017, alongside most of its cleaner and greener department in an attempt to save £500,000 a year.

Furious Labour activists have labelled it 'privatisation' of a vital service and have so far made it the cornerstone of the early electioneering.

Although batches of signatures have been collected by different party figures the total tally has surpassed 500 names so far, with Labour saying it intends to get many more.

Councillor Adrian Gregson, Labour group leader, said: "Several hundred people have signed it and what it shows is that clearly, we've tapped into an area of real public concern.

"There is real anxiety about the council privatising the services and jobs of our staff.

"People have signed it when we've been in the parks, people have signed it online and our video (a campaign video on the party's website) has been viewed a lot of times."

In recent weeks the campaign has come under fierce criticism from the Conservative Party, which has called it a "lie" and "scurrilous".

As we revealed on Wednesday, senior Tories have also dragged up a debate from 1993 in which the city's Labour group tried to get Cripplegate Park sold to Sainsbury's in return for a new play area overlooking the riverside, by ripping up Hylton Road.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, deputy leader, said: "There's only one party which ever tried to concrete over Cripplegate Park and that's Labour."

The Tories say the campaign is based on wrongful fears because parks are not for sale.

The cleaner and greener outsourcing also includes bin collections, play area maintenance and street sweeping, but other functions such as burials, cremations and the cemetery will remain in-house.

* Take a look at the Labour campaign video yourself and see what you think here.