RIVAL councillors from Blackburn with Darwen united to blast the ruling Labour group for spending £38,000 on a survey to find out how people view the council.

National polling organisation MORI will conduct the poll of 1,000 people from the borough to ask them what they think of the service provided from the town hall.

But members of the council's Liberal and Conservative groups say the survey will be a "waste of money".

Liberal leader Coun Paul Browne called the proposal a "scandal" while Conservative Coun Edna Arnold said there were other needy causes in the borough on which £38,000 would be far better spent.

Coun John Williams, the deputy leader of the Conservative group, said: "This questionnaire will be 23 pages of intrusiveness seeking views on everything except justification for one of the highest council taxes in the land. "It will be yet another profligate waste of money.

"We would like to see an externally commissioned survey on the efficiency of the structure of Blackburn with Darwen Council which would show the true extent of waste by the town's biggest employer."

It is hoped the results of the survey will be ready by the end of October and the findings will be contained in an updated edition of the book "The Changing Face of Blackburn with Darwen."

Interviews will take place in residents' homes across a representative sample of people in the borough.

Labour councillors have defended the commissioning of the survey by saying it will be the most detailed study ever conducted in the borough providing vital information about the wants and needs of communities.

The protests come on top of a controversy about the £5,700 cost of relocating a council legal director from one town hall floor to another including the building of a private toilet in her office.

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