COUNCILLORS in Pendle have agreed to a savings package, including service reductions of more than £600,000 and 23 redundancies.

Barrowford Civic Hall is set to close, a grant for the Burnley and Pendle Multi-Racial Playbus is being axed and £50,000 losses are expected following a community centres review.

Plans to reduce funding for the Citizens Advice Bureau, charge for the removal of bulky household goods and scrap the budget for Christmas and Eid decorations were dropped.

Financial support will continue for Colne’s Blues Festival and Manchester Camerata’s visits to The Muni.

But entrance fees for leisure centres will rise by 7.6 per cent from September.

The cuts, on the back of the Coalition government spending purge, has prompted Labour councillors to quit Pendle’s executive in protest.

Labour leader Coun Mohammed Iqbal said the cuts, imposed by the national coalition, had hit too many frontline services.

“We have been working hard to find savings but the fact is that these cuts go too far and too fast,” said Coun Iqbal.

The decision means Coun Iqbal (housing regeneration), Coun Naeem Ashraf (leisure), Coun Asjad Mahm-ood (communities) and Coun Mohammed Sakib (community safety) will step down with immediate effect.

Conservatives shared power with Labour after last May’s elections after the Liberal Democrats refused to participate in a three-way cabinet.

The budget, which will mean no council tax increase for residents, was supported by the Tories and Lib Dems but no decision has been taken on whether councillors will follow Westminster’s lead and form their own coalition.

Council leader Coun Mike Blomeley said: “There have been some concessions on all sides to reach this compromise.”

Earlier he told council-lors the budget would not see ‘swingeing cuts in services’ but would give local people the chance to embrace the ‘Big Society’.