COUNCIL top brass are to hold a crisis meeting to sort out Burnley's recycling collection mess, it was revealed today.

Leading councillors are demanding answers over the scrapping of recycling schemes and will meet town hall chiefs tomorrow to try and clear up confusion over how the green schemes came to be binned.

The council agreed last month that fortnightly collection of glass and cans will end on Friday with fortnightly collections of garden waste, collected in the brown wheelie bins, continuing until October 29.

Fortnightly collections of waste paper will continue as normal. Weekly refuse collections are also unaffected.

The binning of the schemes follows a financial bust-up with refuse collectors Biffa which raised the cost of providing the service by at least 10 per cent, despite an earlier indication that costs would drop by 25 per cent.

A private report seen by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reads: "Biffa's quotations are in stark contrast to earlier indications and, despite reducing the frequency of collection from weekly to fortnightly, increase refuse collection costs by 10 per cent."

Biffa has declined to comment on the claim.

Burnley Council also claim the county council reduced the amount of money they were promised in grants by more than £100,000, a claim denied by the county authority.

But many councillors say they are still in the dark as to how the borough came to suspend its services. LibDem Coun Roger Frost, of Briercliffe ward, who called for the meeting said he still wanted some matters cleared up.

He said: "I want to get to the truth of this matter and find out exactly what has happened to lead to this situation.

"There are certain questions I want answering because it seems someone is not telling the whole truth.

"There has been some level of incompetence along the line and heads should roll, although whose and how many remains to be seen."

Borough council recycling schemes were initially funded through a Government grant but Burnley council had been working with Lancashire County Council on a long-term plan for recycling and hoped to enter a cost sharing agreement.

Burnley council was expecting £564,000 from the county council, according to their own accounts, under any cost share initiative entered into.

But Lancashire County Council has said it had agreed to provide much less - about £440,000 - holding up the formation of any partnership that would meet the cost of recycling collections.

A county council spokesman said: "Burnley Borough Council have not opted into the cost-sharing partnership and currently receive recycling credit payments.

"The figures we gave to the Borough Council in respect to waste collection were made very clear and are the same for each district."