A COUNCILLOR quit his post hours after being sacked from a cabinet position but today insisted: "I did nothing wrong."

Douglas Deakin, who sat on Hyndburn Council for the Huncoat ward, said from his mobile home in the Morecambe area that work commitments meant he could no longer serve the council because he was too busy.

The accountant said he had moved to Morecambe because he was currently working on a "secret new contract" and wanted to be near to his proposed place of work.

He was also in the process of selling his former home in Huncoat.

But he refused to accept criticism from Labour councillors, saying he was spending too much time away.

He said: "If my constituents wanted to contact me, all they had to was pick up the phone or drop a line to my parents address, which is listed as my official address in the council handbook.

"I have been toying with this new line of work for years, and I had even expressed doubts when party members asked me to stand in 1999 and more doubts when they asked me to be a cabinet member in April last year.

"But there is a lot of money involved in this job, which I hope will take me into retirement. Sometimes, family commitments must come first.

"I can't say what the job is because the client has trusted me with confidentiality.

"In all fairness, I have attended all meetings until June but now I can't. Council leader Peter Britcliffe has been decent to me and understands the situation. In have only missed three meetings and it is normal to miss that amount for holidays. My reason was different, that is all."

Coun Britcliffe sacked Mr Deakin from his cabinet role yesterday after he failed to turn up to a crunch meeting to discuss allegations of neglecting constituents.

Coun Britcliffe said: "I can confirm that I received Councillor Deakin's resignation this morning. He was asked to consider his position yesterday which he obviously has done and feels that his business commitments are such that he can not serve his constituents as much he would like to. He also deplores the tactics of the opposition and to a certain extent he does have a point. He has had problems -- both personal and business related - which have prevented him from doing his job properly and I do have sympathy with that.

"You have to get up, shake yourself down and start all over again but he has not been given that chance."

Coun Britcliffe confirmed the cabinet has been slimmed down permanently from nine to eight and that a by election will be held for Douglas Deakin's ward in Huncoat -- possibly in early October.