A ROW is brewing over plans to introduce Hyndburn’s first council tax increase in eight years.

Councillors representing the Labour-controlled authority insist the decision has been prompted by county council recycling changes.

But opposition Conservatives say householders will be ‘paying the price for failure’ for the waste collection service.

MORE TOP STORIES:

In a statement to full council Cllr Gareth Molyneux, resources portfolio holder, said: “The increase in council tax is a direct result of Lancashire County Council ending its financial support for recycling across Lancashire and removing £800,000 of income paid to Hyndburn to assist in separating household waste into separate streams for disposal either to landfill or to be used for some other purpose.”

Council bosses said they can offset part of the loss, saving around £300,000 per year by replacing the bags and boxes system for recyclables with two wheelie bins, one for paper and cardboard and the other for glass, plastics and metals, to be collected on alternate fortnights.

And another £200,000 could be recouped through changes to the garden waste collection service, with green wheelie bins collected fortnightly from March to November.

But this would still leave a £300,000 gap, which the authority intends to claw back at the rate of £100,000 a year over the next three years with a succession of council tax rises.

Cllr Molyneux said the rise, which equates to just over two per cent, is just £5 per year for an average band D property, or proportionately even less for the majority of properties in the borough, which are rated in bands A, B and C.

Cllr Peter Britcliffe, who also represents the Oswaldtwistle county council division for the Conservatives, said: “We seem to be paying the county council more and more for less and less services.

“And this just seems to be a question of paying the price of failure of the current system.”

He also voiced concerns about the ability of thousands of Hyndburn residents to store the proposed two extra bins.

“This could lead to some people having to store them in their front gardens,” he added. The council will debate the proposed rise on Thursday.