A SKIP hire firm has warned it may have to make 18 people redundant after a new waste tax was introduced.

Environmental Waste Recycling, which has a base at the Moorfield Industrial Estate, in Altham, has said the new taxation rules would cost the company an extra £35,000 a week, putting jobs at risk.

The business currently employs 30 staff but the additional charges will mean the workforce will have to be slashed by half.

Temp Moran, manager at the skip company, said: “We are feeling the affects already.

“We are losing money and it is very serious.

“The staff are just waiting to see what happens, we have had a chat and I have explained what will happen.

“We will just have to see what we can do, times are difficult for everyone.

“We have got a good business but it won’t stand this.” The new tax, which was intro-duced last week, means material waste, like soil and brick, will now be charged the same £64 per tonne tax rate as the one that is used for active landfill.

Some firms are being forced to incr-rease their cha-rges from around £130 per skip to £300, which will mean individuals, not just businesses, will be hit.

Mr Moran said: “I expect we will see a great increase in flytipping.

“Because people will take the risk.”

Hyndburn MP Graham Jones said he was ‘outraged’ by the news.

He said: “The industry is up in arms and it is the same case in Hyndburn.

“It is going to blow out businesses over night, within a week, it could all be destroyed.

“I want to ask how we ended up in this situation and what contingency plans are in place to deal with it.

“I am not having 18 staff being laid off at one company and nothing being done about it.”