AN investigation has been launched into why hundreds of people in the Ribble Valley are paying twice for some council tax services.

The situation is believed to date from 1974 when Ribble Valley Council was created and parish and town councils were stripped of many of their powers.

Some parish councils carried on providing services which the newly-created borough council provided in other areas.

The probe began amid claims that an extra £45,000 a year is being collected from people who are paying two councils to provide the same services.

Graveyards, community halls, car parks, public buildings and space insurance, grass cutting and maintenance of play parks are all services which are charged for by some parish councils but also included in borough council tax bills.

Coun Graham Sowter, a borough and parish councillor, said: "With council tax rising every year, a solution needs to be found so that people living in an area where the parish council pays for a play area, don't end up paying for play areas in their borough council precept too."

One solution put forward by some of the parish councils is for the borough council to take over all the services from parishes which it provides in other areas.

But Coun Jim Rogerson, a Longridge councillor, said: "The question there is where does it stop? Just because the council runs a cemetery in one place, will it be hit with demands to run every graveyard?"

Elsewhere in East Lancashire, councillors have said they have no such problems.

Coun Colin Rigby, from Turton and Tockholes ward within Blackburn with Darwen, said: "Powers don't overlap at all."

And a spokesman for Hyndburn Council said work with its parish council, Altham, ensured there was no overlap.