PRESTON'S cleansing chiefs say they have been forced to ask for an extra £35,000, to help clear junkies' used syringes.

More staff than ever from Preston Borough Council's Works Department are being deployed to collect needles dumped by drug users, instead of carrying out day-to-day cleaning duties.

This additional service is currently costing the council £825 per month, and along with other extras - including a massive rise in the number of people using the council's bulky items service - which were not expected when the borough's works unit tendered for the cleansing service contract.

The service is expected to overspend by £35,000 before April.

A council spokesman said: "There are other reasons for the overspend, including increased charges from one of our contractors and a massive growth in the number of houses compared to the small amount added to our budget to allow for this.

"Because of the competitive tendering process, which means council departments have to compete with private firms for contracts, the works department had to submit two very tight bids to win the cleansing contracts, meaning any increase in expenditure is immediately a problem."

The issue was discussed at Preston's environment committee meeting on Thursday. Councillors were told that workers were also having to collect more and more tyres from remote areas of the borough, which were being dumped after the EU imposed taxes on people shredding or burning them.

One suggestion the report makes is for councillors to suspend the bulky items service, which, says the report, would be "very unpopular".

Coun Albert Richardson, who chairs the committee, said: "It was decided by the committee to ask for the extra £35,000 from the finance and property sub committee rather than stop running services which are obviously needed."

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