FIREBRAND councillor Harry Brooks has quit the board of Burnley's new housing company following a "jobs-for-the boys" row.

Anger erupted after fellow directors selected Ian Saville, the man who currently runs council housing in the town and only candidate for the £60,000-a-year chief executive's post, after barring outsiders from applying.

Coun Brooks, a council representative on the shadow board of the company which will take control of Burnley's 5,600 municipal housing stock next year, hit out after fellow directors offered top salaries for executive posts "to attract the best applicants" but only advertised the jobs to existing town hall staff.

Coun Brooks said he resigned after board members voted in private last night to call on the council to sack him as a director. He said he believed the interests of existing staff had been put above the future of public housing in Burnley.

He described the selection process as farcical.

He said today: "I was clearly told I could not publicly oppose decisions of the board and I resigned because I need to be able to speak my mind as a councillor on housing issues."

Councillor Brooks told directors that he would challenge the "jobs for the boys" issue at the highest level nationally. Board chairman Wynn McGeorge refused Coun Brooks' demand to publicly confirm that Mr Saville, currently the council's £47,000 director of community services, had been offered the top post which carries with it a salary in the £55,000-£60,000 bracket, plus new car and enhanced pension benefits, adding an announcement would be made during confidential business.

Board members today confirmed that Mr Saville was selected from a short list of one after no other council housing staff applied.

Coun Brooks, who before the meeting had written to all board members expressing dissatisfaction at the restricted competition policy on executive posts, called at the meeting for a full inquiry into the policy.

"Housing in Burnley is run down and desperately needs new blood. The procedure of this board to make the posts available internally and not externally is a perfect recipe for management mediocrity," he told directors.

Coun Brooks said the procedure had gained widespread criticism in Burnley and people had described it as "Fatcat jobs for the boys."

He called on Gail Roderick, a representative of the Housing Corporation which will regulate the new Burnley and Padiham Housing company and who attended the Comfort Inn meeting as an observer, to say whether the board policy contravened the Corporation's documented "expectation" that senior officer posts should be advertised externally as well as internally. Mrs Roderick replied: "In all areas you should adhere to best practice. But without knowing the background, I am not in a position to say if the decision is reasonable. I will look into it."

Independent director Marianne Hood, a housing consultant, asked for specific legal advice on the position of a director who chose to speak out against the decisions of the board.

Legal advisor Janet Winrow of solicitors Trowers and Hamlins said members had the opportunity to expel someone from the board, in the same way as members of a club could do.

"Once a decision is made it is for everyone to go along with it," she said.

Coun Brooks replied: "Where is it in the Code of Conduct that stops you speaking in public?"

Mrs McGeorge said today the board would be issuing a press release on the chief executive appointment when it was made.

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