COUNCIL bosses were today condemned for slashing a litter budget despite admitting streets are dirtier.

But Coun Ian Ormerod, leader of Hyndburn Council, claimed the £40,000 was needed elsewhere as the area's benefits office was in a state of crisis.

He said that people were being threatened with eviction due to long queues in the office or being unable to get through on the phone.

Coun Peter Britcliffe, leader of the opposing Conservative group, labelled the cut "shameful" and said money could have been taken from something less worthwhile.

A litter commission was set up in February this year with £70,000 after it emerged just 80 per cent of Hyndburn's streets were cleaned to an acceptable level.

It was made up of schools, community groups, local businesses and environmental groups and resulted in a one-off clean of the majority of the area's back streets.

But Coun Ormerod's Labour group, which came to power in May, has decided to focus on recycling to save money to eventually pump back into tackling litter.

A new recycling plant on Charter Street is opening this week.

Coun Ormerod said: "The town is getting dirtier -- I don't particularly disagree with that.

"It will take a long while to turn around but it definitely will turn around with what we are bringing in with recycling.

"We spend £600,000 each year to keep the streets clean. When we took control we found the benefits office was in disarray. We were ranked 20th worst in the country -- that's out of 500 district councils.

"We had to change and make some moves. We are putting a big investment into our benefits office to make sure people who are queuing there will only have to wait 15 minutes and that people, when they ring up, will have the phones answered and not have to wait and wait.

"This has had a knock on effect to our houses with people getting eviction letters with being weeks behind. Don't talk about £40,000 when our services are falling down."

Coun Britcliffe said: "We put £70,000 extra in our first year. The very first action of the Labour group has been to take something like £35,000 out. There is still time for them to change their minds."