AN ENVIRONMENTALIST is planning to fight a council's proposed name change because of the potentially large amount of waste it will create.

Kerry Gormley, Green party representative for Hyndburn, is urging residents to attend several key council meetings so that they can have their say on the plans.

Hyndburn Council's leader Peter Britcliffe wants the authority to become Accrington and Districts Council because he says outsiders do not know where Hyndburn is.

But Miss Gormley has hit back at the idea, saying that people should recognise the name if the council is doing it's job properly.

Miss Gormley said: "The name change will create a huge amount of waste. Each and every household in Hyndburn has a wheelie-bin, a sack and a plastic box for re-cyclables, many even have a green wheelie bin too for compostables.

"All of these receptacles, which number in the thousands, have the name Hyndburn on them and the Hyndburn logo.

"All of these items are made of plastic and will last our life-time and beyond."

Miss Gormley pointed out that plastic licence boards on the borough's taxi cabs also bear the Hyndburn logo, and that many local voluntary groups and businesses successfully operate and trade under the name Hyndburn.

She said: "I have been informed that there will not be any help available to these voluntary groups with regard to funding their own names changes. Businesses should be given support too. A name change will cost them dearly in time and money."

Miss Gormley added: "Hyndburn is the name of the authority, not the area - which is why people don't know where it is. Hyndburn is not a place. If no one has heard of Hyndburn it is because that local authority has not supported or participated in any exciting, visionary or remarkable projects that could get them talked about."

Attendance at area council meetings, where residents have been asked to give their views on the schemes, has not been high.

Miss Gormley said: "If Hyndburn Borough Council area claiming that the community has been consulted on a name change then they are very much stretching the truth. My overall view of the opinion of the ordinary people on this issue is indifference."

She is now urging residents to attend their local area council meeting at 7pm on Thursday November 8 and the full council meeting in Accrington Town Hall at 7pm on Tuesday 20 November 20.

Councillor Britcliffe said that council bins would only be changed when they actually need replacing through wear and tear He added: "Any waste will be kept to a minimum.

"The important thing is to put the area we live in on map - and the only way to do that is to change the name to one the public can associate with."