TOWN hall bosses in Burnley have drawn up a hitlist of cuts and charges as they prepare to slash their budget by a quarter.

Council leaders said government imposed austerity means they have to find £4million of budget savings by 2020.

In the detailed proposals, the council has revealed a wide range of saving measures including the introduction of charges for Burnley residents to enter Towneley Hall and a £30 per year fee for garden waste collection.

The council hope the 50 point plan will save them £2.166million.

Community leaders labelled the proposed cuts as ‘brutal’.

Other cost saving measures identified include increasing the cost of burials and cremations by more than 25 per cent over the next three years.

A move one councillor slammed as a ‘tax on dying’.

Cuts to grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds to Burnley Leisure, the Police Commissioner’s Office and the voluntary sector in the borough would also be made.

Cllr Mark Townsend, leader of Burnley Council, said: “Considering proposals to cut and change the budget in these ways is not easy. We have long passed the point where we could make easy savings by cutting out waste.

“The challenges we face are difficult. They result from government decisions on public sector spending which I would like to see changed and reversed.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Gordon Birtwistle said: “The borough already has the highest charges in the county for burials and cremation and now they want the raise charges by 25 per cent over a couple of years.

“It’s a tax on dying.

“Burnley folk are rightly proud of Towneley Hall and the building and grounds were a gift from the Towneley family to the people of the town. To begin to charge them to enter will turn thousands away from the heritage they were born into.”

The proposals come as Town Hall committees begin to draw up Burnley Council’s budget for next year.

Their approach means that some elements of budgets right up until 2020 are being planned.

The authority said the national government’s approach to town hall finances means that Burnley Council has already reduced its year-to-year spending by £11.6million since 2010.

Burnley Council’s current annual budget is £15.2 million.

Council bosses said their approach included more services being paid for by the people who are directly using them, rather than being entirely paid for out of the council tax income received from everybody.

For the year from April 2017 to March 2018, the proposals include introducing a chargeable green waste collection service.

Residents would pay £30 a year to receive this service, with an ‘early bird’ discount rate of £25.

Charges to visit Towneley Hall for Burnley residents would be introduced and there would be an increase in car park charges at Towneley Park, although no figures have been released.

Cemetery and crematoria fees will rise by 8.25 per cent a year for the next three years. The council’s grant to Burnley Leisure will be slashed by £64,000, with a similar reduction planned for each of the following two years.

They will also end a grant of £88,000 to the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.

There is a plan to review verge maintenance in core areas of the borough, to transfer the Barden Athletics Track to Burnley Leisure and to reduce the budget for the nurseries and greenhouses in parks.

Looking ahead to 2020, the council’s financial strategy sets out by then, the council faces a budget deficit of around £4million. It assumes that council tax will continue to increase by 1.9 per cent and general fees and charges by 2 per cent, as in recent years.

The budget also includes proposals to cut 12 full-time jobs.

The plans will be finalised by the full council in December and February.