HYNDBURN Council's ruling Tory group has been attacked at Westminster over its proposal to privatise the local authority's municipal "crown jewels."

Constituency Labour MP Greg Pope has said that the effective selling off of Accrington Town Hall and Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre is more about grabbing headlines than solving the borough's financial problems.

He has put down a Commons Motion attacking the plan which council leader Peter Britcliffe claims will save £20,000 and keep the council tax increase down to 4.9 per cent despite the economic crisis affecting the authority.

Management of the two venues would be transferred from the council to a private organisation, similar to Hyndburn Leisure Trust, containing business people and a minority of elected councillors.

Labour politicians claim the proposed change would effectively sell off the borough's best buildings.

Mr Pope's Early Day Motion - on the Commons Order Paper, Parliament's daily agenda circulated to all MPs, ministers and senior civil servants - says: "We note with concerns plans by Hyndburn Borough Council to privatise services at Accrington Town Hall and Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre. We note that there has been little or no consultation with staff, unions, opposition councillors or members of the public.

"We believe that the plans are hastily ill-conceived and call upon the leadership of the council to withdraw them forthwith."

Although the Motion is unlikely to be debated, it publicly flags up to the Government and others concerns about the proposal.

Mr Pope said: "These plans are ill thought-out. Like so much about Hyndburn's Tory administration they are about grabbing headlines in the next day's paper but not the long term.

"Councillor Britcliffe claims they will save £20,000, but this claim is at best unproven."

"This is an administration that seems to know the price of everything but the value of money. If this was a serious proposal there would be a full consultation with staff, unions, opposition councillors, community groups and the public."

Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "People are scaremongering. It is not selling off the family jewels, or privatisation.

"It is simply looking at efficiency savings based on placing two buildings in a trust, in the same way we did successfully with our leisure facilities."