AN ambitious bid to make councillors sacrifice a small portion of their allowances to help fund a new dog warden in Rossendale has fallen at the first hurdle.

Cllr Jimmy Eaton, backed by Conservative colleague Cllr David Stansfield, had called upon valley representatives to give up five per cent of their annual remittance to fund an enforcement officer.

But town hall officials and Labour opposition members insist the £9,000 generated, even added to a £4,000 kennelling saving for the authority would not pay the anticipated £24,500 a year cost of the scheme.

And Cllr Eaton was left angered after a 2001 fine he paid for dog fouling, while leisure committee chairman, was raised by rivals.

Cllr Eaton said: “Even if this warden was employed for two or two-and-a-half days a week, and rotated around the borough, it would be worthwhile.

“Dog fouling is one of the highest priority issues for the borough. And for Labour to bring up something which happened 16 years ago is pretty low, even for them.”

Cllr Steve Hughes, a Labour representative for Longholme ward, said: “I am not opposed to the issue being tackled.

“What I’m opposed to is the opposition group trying to get a cheap political win out of this by reducing our allowances by five per cent, which would only raise £9,000.

“You would need around £23,000 to fund a warden and this would not have any impact.

“That is why we as a group opposed this and believe there is a number of other things we could be doing to address this.

“What I did bring up, and a lot of councillors thought funny, was that all of the people who were sat in the council chamber, there was only one who had been fined for dog fouling, and he was proposing the motion.”

The full council motion, which went to a recorded vote, was eventually defeated.

In a report accompanying the motion, the council’s head of finance Phil Seddon said: “There is no other budget provision for a shared service.

“We do, however, have a £24,000 provision for dog kennelling with an expected saving of £4,000.

Mr Seddon said the transport costs for the warden could also run to £3,500, bringing the total bill, with support, to £28,000.

This would still leave a £15,000 funding gap, he told councillors, if the move was approved.