DISTRICT councillors have hit out after Lancashire County Council agreed to provide more grit bins - as long as they paid for them.

Representatives of Pendle Council said this would mean that residents would effectively be "paying twice" to keep footpaths clear of ice.

District councillors made this claim because the county council is the highways authority and takes council tax to maintain the roads.

A meeting of Pendle Council's Brierfield and Reedley Committee this week heard that district councillors had requested more on-street grit bins from the county council two months ago, but was told it would not be allowed any.

After further negotiations, the county council has now agreed to provide more bins - but only if Pendle Council buys them, pays for filling and maintaining them, and clearly marks them as separate to the county council scheme, the meeting was told.

The area committee is now set to consider where to place its bins, which will cost £100 each and a further £25 per refill.

Coun Frank Wren, who led the call for extra bins, said: "The council tax is split between Lancashire County Council and Pendle Council, and Pendle gets peanuts from it.

"Lancashire took back the responsibility for the highways, but we are having to pay to keep them safe.

"We are subsidising the county council again in their responsibility to protect the elderly and disabled."

He said services throughout Pendle's roads had suffered since Lancashire County Council took back control of them in 2005.

Before that, highways had been administrate by Pendle Council under a partnership agreement with the county authority.

Coun Wren told the meeting: "Again and again, we are being short-changed by the county council and it seems there is hardly anything we can do about it.

"If we want proper facilities for the people of Pendle we are having to pay for them, and that is simply not fair when it is county that gets the lion's share of the money."

Committee chairman CounTonia Barton added: "What we are doing here is replacing what has been taken away. There used to be a grit bin on nearly every street corner and now there are hardly any."