ARSON and vandalism at Burnley's recycling plant has got so bad that managers have given the fire brigade their own key.

Firefighters were called out again to the Sita recycling centre, Princess Way at about 7.30pm yesterday after a waste paper skip was torched - the latest in a series of arson attacks at the site.

Now fire chiefs and waste bosses have vowed to take action to try and stop the vandals and arsonists causing so many problems at the site.

Measures will include strengthening fences to try and stop break ins, cutting back trees to stop people climbing in and covering fences with anti-vandal paint.

The site, off Princess Way, is one of 23 recycling centres in the county run by Sita on behalf of Lancashire County Council for waste, including paper and cardboard, scrap metal and household scrap like fridges.

The site manager, who asked not to be named, said they were plagued with problems at the depot but were doing all they could to try and tackle them.

He said: "We get one group of people who seem to break in and just look through the skips to see if there is anything worth taking and they just leave a mess, but we also get children breaking in and they seem intent on causing a lot of damage and quite frequently setting fire to the paper or cardboard skips.

"People will try every way they can to get in, either by burrowing under the fence, climbing over the fence or breaking the locks. It has been a problem for quite a long time, in fact we have even given the fire brigade their own key because they get called out here so often.

"It's not just a case of people making a mess and causing damage, but individuals are putting themselves at risk. Quite apart from the dangers of starting fires there are people climbing in the skips, which is hazardous because it is waste material and the skips contain scrap metal.

"We are working with the fire service to try and stamp out these problems with things like anti-vandal paint and cutting back some of the branches on trees around the site to discourage people climbing in."

Watch manager at Burnley fire station Dave Robinson said: "The site is certainly a problem for us and we have been up there quite a number of times recently. We are working with the site managers to try and stop some of the children and others breaking in."

County Councillor Tony Martin, member for Burnley Central West and the authority's cabinet member for sustainable development, said: "I wasn't aware of the problems, but I will make further inquiries into this because although it is Sita which runs the site we are ultimately responsible and if we need to do soemthing to help strengthen security then we will look at doing that."