COUNCILLORS in Hyndburn have reinstated a truce after opposition Labour members threatened to walk out of a special budget panel.

The ruling Tory group and opposition members have been working together to clear a £1.8million deficit before the end of March.

The council set up a special budget panel with members from both parties to work out how to clear the overspend.

But at a meeting of the council, the gloves came off when Baxenden's two Conservative councillors appeared to blame Labour for the financial mess.

The council announced yesterday it was selling the former Brook Bond Oxo mill, in Great Harwood, owned in partnership with Barnfield Construction, for £700,000 to help plug the financial gap which has largely been blamed on the former works department under performing.

With £1million already wiped off the overspend through undisclosed means, the sale would leave a deficit of £209,000. After a meeting of the cabinet yesterday both parties issued a statement agreeing to carry on working together.

But at the earlier meeting, Labour leader Jean Battle said her party was prepared to withdraw from the panel, and council leader Peter Britcliffe said he had never wanted a truce, preferring to "go for the jugular."

Tory Coun Jim Dickinson said: "If there hadn't been so many big bills left in the bottom drawer we wouldn't be in this mess."

Responding to comments from the Labour group about money spent by Baxenden area council, his colleague John Griffiths said: "We thought long and hard about all these items.

"Most of them have been promised in the past. I talked them over with the managing director and we let these go through. We cut back on some. We weren't totally irresponsible. Some of these items were sorted out quite a long time ago and money was put in the budget quite a long time before we realised what you had done with our money."

Opposition leader Jean Battle said: "We don't take responsibility for the £1.8million. We may take responsibility for a small sum of that money but not an amount like that.

"We were only in control for a year and some of these debts go back to 2000/01 when we were not in control.

"The major responsibility lies with the ruling group who at the present time are Conservative.

"If these allegations keep coming out about debts in the bottom drawer we will withdraw our support from the budget panel and let them sort it out themselves.

"We are quite happy to take part but not if we are going to get the blame for something that's not our fault."

Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: "If the truce is called off I will issue a statement next week to say how the budget went wrong. I won't put the blame on anyone, I will just say who was in charge when, and what went wrong where.

"I was a most reluctant convert to the truce, I wanted to go for the jugular and have been restrained by colleagues."