A BNP councillor has been accused of "wanting to keep Burnley in the Dark Ages" after she slammed Building Schools for the Future in a video posted on the internet.

Coun Sharon Wilkinson's eight-minute video appears on the BNP-led Burnley Right Now website.

In it, she claims that the £250million building project is being used as an experiment in integration for Burnley school-children, and that the new schools will break up communities, make pupils travel a long way to school, and leave the town with a massive debt to pay back to private firms.

Defending her video, she said: "Yes, the BNP wants investment in Burnley but not this way.

"Surely small schools serving each community would be better for the future because comm-unities are breaking down?

"This takes them away from their communities and forces them to travel, in this age of global warming.

"Burnley is being used as a government experiment with integration as a main point and the trouble we have already had at Hameldon College speaks for itself.

"When a child is in that environment you can't tell me he is going to feel safe and ready to learn, but we have just been told to go along with these know-alll do-gooders."

But the council leader Gordon Birtwistle said BNP members had to "accept and embrace" the fact that they live in a multicultural society.

He said: "If we are an experiment in integration and it works then so be it, because the community needs to integrate.

"Their party seems to be objecting to anything new coming to Burnley - they seem to want to be back in the Dark Ages.

"When people like Coun Wilkinson keep portraying the bad things about Burnley and not putting forward the good bits it looks like they want the decline to continue.

"The government will be looking at what reactions the new schools get when they look at funding for the future, and if people keep condemning them, that could affect what we get.

"The Liberal Democrat executive is fighting like Hell to get maximum funds for Burnley to improve our town, but when there are people trying their best to derail our efforts, it makes things doubly difficult."