AN MP has dismissed a council survey which revealed that the town's residents were being short-changed on spending per head compared to Blackburn.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson, who is still waiting for the local council to send her a copy of the report, said the figures were not comparing like with like.

The Labour MP spoke out after local residents claimed their town was losing out to Blackburn. Their claims followed a Blackburn with Darwen Council audit which revealed people in Blackburn had more cash spent per head last year.

The audit, launched by council leader Sir Bill Taylor, showed a shortfall of £763 per person of public money between the two towns.

Coun Taylor said the only reason Blackburn was getting more was because it has a higher proportion of deprived areas.

But Darwen people said it had actually proved local people's long-standing complaint that the town loses out to its larger neighbour.

The "resource mapping" calculated that people in Blackburn had £5,407 of public money spent on them in 2002/3, while in Darwen the figure was only an average of £4,644 for every resident.

The survey found that Blackburn wards represent 77 per cent of the borough's population but received 79.7 per cent of the money in 2002/03. Darwen wards had 23 per cent of the population and 20.3 per cent of the spend.

Mrs Anderson said: "It is difficult for me to comment in detail because the council has not sent me a copy of the report. However it strikes me as a pretty pointless exercise because inevitably you are not comparing like with like.

"For example, if a ward contains a school or a hospital it will inevitably have more public money spent on it than one which does not. And there will be many other disparities which figures like these will not reflect.''

Coun Taylor said: "People are taking into account two rural wards around Darwen as being in the town. Those wards obviously don't get as much money because they are more affluent.

Liberal Democrat leader and Darwen councillor, Paul Browne, said that rather than dispelling myths, the exercise had proved one.

He added: "I've been saying since the town's councils joined in 1973 that the people of Darwen have never had the same amount of money spent on them as people in Blackburn."