CONTROVERSIAL pay-as-you-throw schemes will not be introduced in Pendle, according to local councillors.

Pendle's ruling Liberal Democrats say that they are opposed to introducing measures that would see residents charged according to the amount of waste they discard.

Councillor John David, the council's executive member for the environment, said that such a scheme would cause more problems than it would solve.

He said that it could result in more fly-tipping and would be difficult to introduce in households which currently have a orange sack as they are unsuitable for wheelie bins.

There are also concerns that it would be difficult to make the system fair between households of different sizes and the costs involved might mean that it did not represent value for money.

The government has said that councils will be given the option to take up the pay-as-you throw scheme if they want.

Coun David said: "Liberal Democrat councillors have discussed this again and we still think that the best way to increase the amount of amount of recycling, and reduce the amount of general waste that has to go to landfill, is to run good recycling systems and encourage more and more people to use them.

"For instance we are soon starting a pilot scheme in part of Pendle for collecting kitchen food waste separately."

Coun Alan Davies, the council leader, said: "There would be great resentment by the people of Pendle if this were to happen.

"We feel it is more desirable to encourage recycling rather than penalise people.

"We consider this to be basic service the council is providing without any additonal payments."

Councillor David said that most residents have welcomed the introduction of recycling-so much so that Pendle is top of the recycling league in East Lancashire.

"With over a third of all rubbish being recycled, our residents deserve praise and encouragement rather than a kick in the teeth from extra charges," he said .