My motion to abolish council buffets was defeated. Cllr Britcliffe suggested that it was a back door for the Labour group to increase their expenses.
You may check my expense claims anytime you like, you won't find any meal claims and I have no intention of taking them in future.
My motion on writing to Royal Mail to reclassify the Hyndburn postcodes away from Blackburn was withdrawn as Cllr Britcliffe had coincidentally already had items of correspondence addressing both of my motions.
The Conservative amendment to my original motion was therefore not allowed and legal advice was sought as to whether I could do this.
I could.
Cllr Peter Clarke wrote to me on 4th March 2011 to complain that I had written on the local internet discussion forum Accrington Web about the £250,000 allocated to Rishton by the Leader of the Council for improvements to the area:
(See post 4 on 'Hyndburn 2m bonanza' thread)
Before I wrote this paragraph I failed to check my facts and have now been reassured by Cllr Clarke that no members of his family live on Norfolk Street. Therefore I wish to apologise unreservedly for making the statement on Accrington Web.
Cllr Peter Clarke told me in his letter that he considered the statement to be 'libel against (him) personally' and he asked that I apologise publicly to him in order to 'prevent legal action'.
I wish to confirm that I accept my statement about his personal connection with the playing field proposal in Norfolk Street is completely without factual basis and I wish to ask Cllr Clarke publicly to accept this sincere apology for the distress or embarrassment caused by my ill-founded remarks.
I trust that in complying with Cllr Clarke's request the matter can now be closed without resorting to legal action.
I also asked a question on notice:
Would the Leader of the Council confirm that he condones the £2,765.47 claimed by former Cllr Roy Atkinson as Chair of the Employment Committee between 2006 and 2010, despite the fact that this committee has not met since 2004?
Cllr Britcliffe's response suggested that as I was relatively new to council I may not understand fully how things work and that the fact that the committee had not met was an indicator of the good job that Cllr Atkinson had done in the role.
A supplementary question was disallowed by the Mayor for having no relevance to either the first question or the reply:
Can the Leader of the Council confirm that he claimed £1,073.25 as Chair of the Licensing Committee between 2007 and 2008 even though the committee did not convene in either of those years?
I stated that the connection was with members' allowances but accepted the Mayor's authority on this and sat down.
I also asked a second question on notice:
Would the Leader of the Council please verify the claim by Cllr Marlene Haworth in The Accrington Observer on 25th February that an extra 3,000 people have been brought into the town following Aldo Zilli’s appearance and explain how the council measured that figure?
Although the immediate response was to suggest that I was talking the town down while others were trying to talk it up, when asked a second time he indicated that there were several devices in the town centre to do this and that he was satisfied that anything Cllr Haworth had stated was true.