OUTRAGED residents kept phone lines at Burnley Town Hall busy complaining at the negative way the town had been portrayed by a national newspaper.

The Express used figures from the Audit Commission for 1998/99 to portray Burnley Council as a slow payer and the town as having empty council houses and dirty streets.

The article by Express political editor Anthony Bevins was accompanied by photographs of a playground beneath a gasometer and a scene of rubble and decay in the Stoneyholme/Daneshouse area.

Mr Bevins told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph: "Far from being a southerner who has not been north of Watford, I am a Scouser. In fact I used to have a girlfriend who lived in Burnley. I have visited the town, although I cannot claim to know Burnley well."

Ian Monteath, the head of Burnley Council's policy unit, said: "We are disappointed the article has been so selective. There are lots of good things going on in Burnley which we have talked to The Express about but which they have not mentioned."

He added: "We have quite a few telephone calls from irate residents who are outraged that it presents such a negative picture."

He added: "I think it is a bit off when they show a photograph of a clearance site in Daneshouse. There is a lot of work going on there to improve the area.

"The photograph of the playground in Stoneyholme shows a well equipped playground with a lot of children playing.

"There is Pendle Hill and nice countryside in the background but they take exception to the gasometer. It is there and part of Burnley, the council can do nothing about that." The article said Burnley had performed poorly on a number of measures across the board highlighting:

The council paid only 41 per cent of its bills promptly, half the English average,

It took an average of 11.8 weeks to re-let empty council housing, more than twice the national average,

It is one of 20 per cent of councils not to carry out random street inspections for cleanliness and said "no" on five out of seven measures for refuse collection including a refusal to make appointments for bulky collections.

Mr Monteath said he couldn't argue against the statistics because they were supplied by Burnley Council to the official Audit Commission.

He added: "We have taken action to improve the figures for the prompt payment of bills and last year's figures will be better. We need to speed it up and this is what we are doing, we are moving in the right direction."

He said the problem was the decentralised system of ordering and paying for things and that problem was being tackled.

The time to re-let houses reflected the problems Burnley had faced for some time with the number of vacant properties and the lack of money they could borrow to improve the properties.

That was why they had made such great efforts in setting up Burnley and Padiham Housing company who had taken over the housing stock and were about to make massive investments. The council did make random street inspections for cleanliness but had not followed the exact procedure. They also made free collections of bulky household waste within a five day target although no actual appointment was made.

Mr Monteath added: "While there have been complaints about refuse collection services we have just let a new contract to another company at a greater investment and with a higher standard of service."

Mr Bevins commented: "You only get improvements in this world by complaining.

"If Burnley has pulled its socks up and taken action on its slow payment record, housing and refuse collection that is wonderful and I am sure the people of Burnley will be delighted.

"There are miles to go yet before Burnley and other councils are perfect. I am happy to hear action is being taken because that is what the whole exercise is about."