A BURNLEY councillor has accused the "fat cats'' of Lancashire County Council of wilfully endangering young lives by their decision to slash the budget on school swimming lessons.

Coun Harry Brooks said: "We have the fat cats of Lancashire County Council carrying on living well at public expense and at the same time reducing the budget for school swimming.''

He said it amounted to wilfully endangering the lives of young people and asked if they were expected to sit back while local county councillors supported it.''

Coun Gordon Birtwistle agreed it was deplorable adding: "We live in an area where there is a canal, many reservoirs and other water courses all over the place where young people could drown.''

The County Council had rejected Burnley's request for more police officers and that was also unacceptable.

They had a budget of £200,000 for free dinners for county councillors and staff at County Hall. "How can that be right?'' he asked, "they have lavish entertainment when cutting back on basic rights of a child who lives in Burnley. It is an appalling situation.''

Coun Mohammed Najib, who also sits on Lancashire County Council, said he had a moral duty to give an explanation to the people he represented but was not obliged to reply to personal attacks by Coun Brooks.

Recreation committee vice-chairman Coun John Harbour said he did not know if a letter had been sent to the LCC as a result of the committee decision in July asking them to reconsider their decision to reduce the budget for school swimming lessons or whether officers were waiting for the decision to be ratified.

He added: "It is a sad state of affairs when councillors Brooks and Birtwistle use children for political points scoring."

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