ENVIRONMENT chiefs in Selby have come under fire after it emerged they were heading for a budget overspend of more than £600,000.

The figure includes almost £200,000 more than anticipated on recycling - an overspend of more than 30 per cent.

The ruling Conservative group on Selby District Council was today accused of "financial naivety," but council leader Mark Crane said they had done nothing wrong and accused his opponents of "belly-aching."

The figures are included in a report to today's meeting of the council's environment board. In the council's budget, the board's gross expenditure was set at £4.4 million.

But today's revised estimate puts expenditure at just over £5 million.

The discrepancy is softened by the fact income is also set to rise, by £270,000. But the board is left with a net overspend of £330,485.

The extra net expenditure includes £195,000 on recycling; £97,000 on refuse collection; £16,500 on street-cleaning; £5,420 on public conveniences; £4,700 at Tadcaster market.

Labour spokesman Steve Shaw-Wright said this was just the latest case of the council failing to stick to its budget, and accused them of dipping into council reserves too often.

He said: "It makes the budget meeting a farce because we know that if there is any problem they will just take the money out of the balances."

He added: "It's an ongoing problem because they do not put the rate up when they need to."

Coun Crane responded: "If he Coun Shaw-Wright thinks we have not got the money to do what we are doing, why have we not had to set a rate above the level of inflation. For all his belly-aching, his group have set no budget proposals for the past two years or this year. We have promised we would only increase the rates by the rate of inflation or lower. We have adhered to that in previous years and we will do that again this year."

Environment Board chair Chris Metcalfe said the shortfall in recycling was due to three reasons.

He said there had been a previous overspend on a recycling vehicle, after the council missed out on an anticipated Government grant. He said the price the council received for waste paper, from Selby business Rigid Paper, had dropped dramatically in the past year. And he said use of the council's green bins was not as high as anticipated, meaning the council missed out on Government recycling credits.

He added: "It's disappointing we have not managed to maximise income, but we have got to look not at individual compartments - it's about the total scheme. The recycling scheme, in itself, has been an outstanding success."

Updated: 09:48 Thursday, January 19, 2006