HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope has accused the council's new leader of trying to "buy off" opponents within his party with positions of responsibility.

The broadside comes after it was revealed Councillor Peter Britcliffe had increased the size of the council cabinet from seven to nine, and split the scrutiny panel into two, creating an additional £15,000 in members' expenses.

But Coun Britcliffe said Labour were poor losers and denied there was any split in his party.

Expenses have jumped 20 per cent from £49,500 to £64,500 with Labour saying every member of the Conservatives had been given a specialist role, attracting extra payment on top of the basic £3,100 allowance.

Mr Pope said: "This is a disgrace. It's a waste of taxpayers money. Peter Britcliffe is power mad. The Tory group is split. What he's doing is increasing the number of cabinet posts to buy off his opponents and he's doing it with council tax payers' money.

"The row about the mayoralty and taking it off Labour is the same thing.

"The Tories are always claiming that they offer better value for money than Labour councils. This shows it's nonsense."

Coun Britcliffe said: "This is the year we face our first ever comprehensive performance assessment, which will help to determine the financing this council receives from the government in the future.

"There are some extremely big jobs to do, for instance we have to take on board the community safety strategy, which has created a need for someone to take responsibility for community safety, hence the extra job for Coun Janet Storey."

The other position was given to Coun Ann Scaife to examine the new waste collection service introduced in March, he said.

"If I was power mad, rather than enlarging, the cabinet I would have shrunk it in order to have more control."

Coun Tim O'Kane said he was concerned that the executive outnumbered the scrutiny by two to one.

"How is it that a group in one of the smallest areas in Britain has to expand to nine. With only 18 members on the controlling group there are now 12 in special responsibility positions.

"There is no budget for these increases. This has to come out of next year's council tax or from the cabinet action fund.

"His own party didn't support his budget. He said he wanted to give money back to the people, but he's only given it to a handful of his own."

Coun Britcliffe said: "As the modernisation process goes forward every councillor has more and more responsibility and is far more accountable to the public.

"I have heard some dreadful comments since I took control, such as 'pigs in the trough', which is disgusting when one considers that the first action the Labour administration took last year was to increase their allowance by a massive 50 per cent."