MAGISTRATES have put the brakes on a borough's first citizen - but she said it will not stop her campaigning against the area's speed demons.

Coun Maureen McGarvey, the Blackburn with Darwen Mayor, was caught out by a speed trap, while driving her Fiat car on Preston New Road in January, four months before she took her chains of office.

The mayor was summonsed to appear in the dock at the Blackburn's magistrates court on Northgate.

Tory Coun McGarvey, of St Michael's Court, Blackburn, who represents Roe Lee ward, admitted a speeding charge at the hearing.

She was fined £80 with £70 court costs and three penalty points were imposed on her driving licence.

After the hearing Coun Maureen McGarvey said: "I will carry on campaigning against speeding and for traffic-calming measures where they are needed, nothing has changed.

"I was caught doing 35 miles an hour in a 30mph zone.

"Unfortunately I mislaid the paperwork and did not return the forms in time.

"As a result I was asked to appear in court this week. I have apologised to the court for my mistake."

Before becoming mayor, she had served previously on the planning and highways committee, which considers imposing new speed restriction on Blackburn and Darwen roads on occasion, and was an opposition spokesman on social services for some time.

The councillor was instrumental, with fellow ward members, in getting speed restrictions imposed on Openshaw Drive and Pleck Farm Avenue, in late 2000.

The grandmother-of-nine has also represented the Brownhill and Revidge wards for the Conservatives and was a former county councillor for Blackburn before unitary status was achieved.

Long stretches of Preston New Road, from the Blackburn border with Samlesbury, are designated 30mph zones, with cameras in operation at key locations.