threatENED home waste recycling centres in East Lancashire were given a reprieve as the county council increased next year's tax by 4.95%.

The council's cabinet decided to keep open Langho's Longsight Road and Padiham's Park Road centres.

Last month it had proposed to close them in a year to save about £600,000-a-year.

Councillors said they had taken the decision following the public outcry when plans were revealed to axe them.

Chorley's information centre has also been given a reprieve, but Clitheroe's is still due to close to save £128,000.

Councillors voted for a 4.95% rise, which equates to about £49.34 on the current band D rate of £996.85.

The Government will not allow rises of 5% and over, so councillors said they had to tighten up their budget.

The Labour cabinet has started an initiative to save £10m through efficiency measures which include scrapping 50 jobs in human resources, and streamlining back room operations.

Councillors had proposed axeing £2.1m of services, but has lowered this to £1.8m and restored £50,000 of community grants it was proposing to take away. They reinstated £250,000 planned to be dropped from highways maintenance and an extra £250,000 was added to fix roads.

The council is to set up a task force to examine how all waste recycling centres in the county are used, and this may result in some being closed.

Coun Anne Brown, cabinet member for resources, said: "We are aware of the burden that council tax has for people and that a lot of people struggle to make payments.

"We try to keep it as low as we can but at the same time much of the budget goes to support services for vulnerable people and they do not like us to have to make cuts in those services."

To keep the rate down, £450,000 will be cut from bus services, and charges for care in the community services are to increase from £10 to £11 to people who pay the full cost, to raise an additional £275,000.

The cabinet has proposed saving £600,000 by helping the elderly care for themselves after a personal crisis.

Transport for 63 students older than 16 who had special needs but did not have a statement of special needs is to be cut to save £40,000.

The decision will be ratified by the full council on February 15.