AN MP has been accused of "muckraking" in a dispute over the town's rubbish recycling record.

North Swindon's Michael Wills spoke out in a Commons debate on recycling to say that he was disappointed at the number of recycling points in the borough, saying there are only 0.24 points for every 1,000 people, compared to a national average of 0.41 per 1,000.

But the council has hit back and said that it is on course to meet its targets.

Environment minister Ben Bradshaw said in the Commons that Swindon has a "depressing" recycling record, and warned that the council's continued reliance on dumping waste in landfill will lead to increasingly higher council tax bills The local authority recycled or composted 19.5 per cent of waste in 2004-5. This was a four per cent jump on the previous year but still 10.5 per cent short of its Government target for 2005-06 of recycling 30 per cent of the town's rubbish.

The Government is attempting to force local authorities to stop sending waste to landfill by using an "escalator tax".

The tax is due to rise by £3 a tonne per year from the current level of £18 a tonne until it reaches £35 a tonne.

Mr Bradshaw warned that the spiralling landfill costs could be passed onto council tax bills.

He singled out Swindon a Tory-controlled council and Bristol, under Liberal Democrat control.

He said: "It is depressing, when some local authorities are so good, such as Newport, and are doing so well on recycling, that others, such as Bristol and Swindon do so badly. There is no excuse for it, and my honourable friends may want to take a stark warning back to their constituents.

"As the landfill escalator hits in as one of the major financial incentives, council taxpayers in Bristol and Swindon will pay the price for the poor performance of their local authorities."

Local authorities with poor recycling rates can "buy" allowances to dump more waste in landfill but this will also cost local taxpayers, Mr Bradshaw added.

But Swindon Council's Conservative group leader Roderick Bluh has accused Mr Wills of "muckraking".

He said the figures quoted in the debate were wrong, as the latest recycling and composting figures are above 27 per cent. He was confident they would hit the Government's 30 per cent target before the landfill fines came in to effect.

Coun Bluh said: "This is our MP muckraking. They are disappointed about the election result.

"To suggest we are on 19.5 per cent is totally misleading. We are well on target.

""We have no intention of paying any landfill tax. Recycling is very much high on our agenda."

Fionuala Foley, deputy leader elect, said: "Once again Michael Wills has chosen deliberately to misrepresent Swindon Council's recycling rate, and has ignored the real improvements made in the past year.

"He must know that his own Government has set us a target of 30 per cent to reach by March 2007, and he must also know that we are already near to that target.

"If he had asked us, we could have told him that our rate to the end of March was 27.3 per cent."