TODMORDEN councillor Michael Taylor is leading a Liberal Democrat attack on Conservative plans to cut services in Calderdale.

Coun Taylor, who heads the Lib-Dem group on the council, has slammed plans to close 15 mini recycling sites, to cut funding to outside bodies by £200,000 and to stop night-time inspections of street lights.

On recycling he said: "Calderdale needs to do more to promote recycling, not less. If these sites are closed the waste will just go into people's dustbins and the council will end up paying a lot of money to bury it in the ground.

"Recycling in Calderdale has only just started to improve. There's a long way to go before we get to be as good as many other councils in the country. Closing these sites will mean that we go backwards."

One of the great assets of Calderdale was the very active voluntary sector and the proposed cash cuts were "bad news".

He said: "Our budget proposals include an increase of £80,000 to reverse the cuts already made in recent years."

Coun Taylor, who lives in Todmorden, said the street lights proposal was one of the smaller threatened cuts but one of the dafter ones.

"If the council is going to look out for faulty street lights, it makes sense to do it at night," he said, adding: "At least then it is pretty obvious which lights aren't working."