A council has been rapped for going more than £500,000 over budget on recycling.

Hastings Borough Council's members and officers have been accused of being "too enthusiastic" in attempting to reach Government targets, and not dealing with poor management.

In January, the then Labour-led authority, which spends £16 million a year, found it had gone over budget on recycling by £366,000, and an internal audit was ordered.

By June unexpected costs had pushed the total up by a further £180,000, leading to an overspend equivalent to eight per cent of the borough's council tax income.

Chief executive Roy Mawford ordered three independent reviews which made a number of criticisms, blaming the lack of experience of waste manager Peter Hooper and his team for the fiasco and pointing the finger at senior councillors for failing to get involved.

The reports concluded that problems arose because of Mr Hooper's "non-compliance with standing orders and a very poor management trail throughout".

Detailed financial records determining where and exactly how much money was spent have still not been found.

The reports came from consultants White Young Green, which advises the council on waste matters, Glynn Jones, a retired local authority chief executive, and an internal audit.

Mr Jones found there were concerns over Mr Hooper's competency which were not addressed due to his "links with certain leading local politicians".

His report states: "As early as 2003 when waste services were still under the control of the now deputy chief executive and director of finance, concerns were expressed at both member and officer level about the capacity of the waste and recycling team, in particular the performance of its manager".

Mr Hooper took early retirement in December last year before the first overspend figure was revealed.

White Young Green concluded there was no clear timetable, no engaged project team, no clear reporting line to the corporate management team, no project leader with adequate skills, no adequate specialist technical support, no clear line to provide adequate progress updates to the chief executive, no compliance with council procedures and standing orders and no log of timetables, reviews or updated risk assessments.

The report said: "If anything could have gone wrong it did. But the root reasons for the difficulties lie in the council's overall approach to the project. There appears to be little corporate support in dealing with a difficult situation."

Kevin Boorman, spokes- man for the council, said: "The chief executive has accepted the criticisms are serious and justified and he accepts his share of that criticism. We now have a new waste and recycling management team in place and they will be learning from the lessons in this report."

He added that he did not want to "pre-empt" the overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday which will discuss the matter. The committee meets at 4.30pm in the Town Hall.