A COUNCILLOR has called for the scrapping of the Burnley Borough News council newspaper to provide more cash for a scheme providing free or cheap access to sports and arts facilities.

Coun Harry Brooks told a meeting of the full council that an Equal Opportunities Committee minute about the re-launch of the Burnley Community Access Passport Scheme gave the impression that everything was going fine.

What it didn't reveal was that the scheme had been cut to something like one third of what it was the previous year.

Concessions at the Thompson Centre only applied in June, September and December and at the Mechanics ten tickets were provided at £1 each over eight months.

Coun Brooks said the situation was made worse by councillors boasting of the scheme in the Burnley Borough News, the council's own information newspaper.

A properly funded scheme could be run, said Coun Brooks, by dropping the Burnley Borough News which he described as a joke in bad taste, saving £30-40,000.

Equal Opportunities chairman, Coun Peter Swainston, said the council would like to provide the passport scheme for 52 weeks a year but was unable to do so because of the budget situation.

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