RESIDENTS of Darwen today claimed their town was being shortchanged after a council audit revealed people in Blackburn had more cash spent on them last year.

The exercise launched by Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Sir Bill Taylor showed a shortfall of £763 per person of public money between the two towns.

Coun Taylor said the initiative, carried out by a team of consultants, was aimed at dispelling myths about how council cash and other public funds were spent.

The council leader claims that the only reason Blackburn is getting more money per head is because it has a higher proportion of deprived areas.

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

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

The consultants were hired to carry out the study by the council and the Strategic Partnership Board, a team of representatives from the public organisations which have a stake in the borough.

The study found that £719million was spent across the twotowns in 2002/03, a14 per cent increase on the previous year. Last year the council was given £132.2million by the Government.

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

The highest level of spending was in the Blackburn wards of Shadsworth and Audley. In Shadsworth, an average of £6,033 was spent on each resident, while in Audley the figure was £5,416. Darwen's East Rural ward attracted the lowest level of spending - £7.2million, an average of £3,745 - because of its low population.

The borough's 10 most deprived wards - Audley, Bastwell, Higher Croft, Little Harwood with Whitebirk, Mill Hill, Queen's Park, Shadsworth, Shear Brow, Sudell and Wensley Fold - received £399million, an average of £5,753 per person, which was over half the total expenditure.

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.

"Overall, 56 per cent of the money is spent in the most deprived half of the borough. Some of those areas are in Darwen, but many are in Blackburn. If you compare the urban areas of the two towns, they have very similar funding levels. This was a unique and detailed exercise which shows that residents across the borough get value for money.

"A common myth peddled by extreme political groups is that money is constantly targeted at minority groups. However, this study dispels those claims."

Liberal Democrat leader and Darwen councillor, Paul Browne, said that rather than dispelling myths, the exercise had proved one. He said: "I've been saying since the town's council's joined in 1973 that the people of Darwen have never had the same amount of money spent on them as people in Blackburn.

"The only fair way Darwen people could get value for money was if all the money they paid in council tax was spent in Darwen and nowhere else."

Coun Colin Rigby, a councillor for the North Turton with Tockholes ward and leader of the council's Conservative group, said: "It has been known a long time that there is a spending differential and for all sorts of reasons Darwen does not get a fair crack of the whip."