A SENIOR councillor has accused his opponents of misleading the public after they likened local government debt to credit card borrowing.

The row broke out after Darlington Conservatives used a photograph of a giant credit card in their campaign to represent Labour-run Darlington Borough Council's "£105m debt".

But senior Labour councillor Chris McEwan said the council's net debt was nearer to £75m, and the system of borrowing was financially prudent, working in a similar way to a mortgage by financing assets such as roads and schools.

He accused the opposition of either failing to properly understand the way councils borrow, or trying to deliberately mislead the public.

The Conservative group is distributing the photograph - which shows councillors holding a credit card with £105,908,000 printed on it to represent the debt - to Darlington residents.

They say the debt is equivalent to £2,179 per household and the interest alone costs £3m a year.

Conservative group resources spokesman Councillor Charles Johnson said: "Labour has failed on three fronts.

"First, it has recklessly allowed debt to spiral in Darlington, mirroring Gordon Brown's actions in the country as a whole.

"Second, Labour exaggerated the effect of Government grant reductions and has been forced to backtrack on how many jobs will actually be lost.

"Third, it ignored the opportunity in previous years to deal with the costs of managing and running the council, something which the Conservative group is eager to address.

"We would start with a review of the political operation of the council, with a view to increasing democratic accountability at a reduced cost."

But Labour's cabinet member for resources, Coun McEwan said: "Our net borrowing is just £76m.

"Likening local government debt to borrowing on a credit card is just plain wrong.

"We borrow like you would on a mortgage - a low interest loan to create and develop capital assets such as schools and roads.

"Our assets are worth in the region of £440m - more than four times our debt.

"The Tories, once again, are very quick to point out an issue, but very slow to come up with a solution.

"I am seriously worried that they are either failing to understand local government finance, or that they are deliberately trying to mislead the public on this."