ANGRY residents have won a face-to-face meeting with Burnley council bosses after telling Labour leaders "You are finished in Daneshouse."

Householders, furious that a large part of the area has been left out of a £5 million improvement plan for the district, packed the town hall public gallery after handing in a 1,000-name protest petition.

And they won the right to a public meeting on their own ground after Liberal Democrats forced the issue.

Housing chairman Coun Rafique Malik, had three times failed to agree to calls for an open debate and explanation from town hall chiefs in the Daneshouse community centre.

But when LibDem leader Gordon Birtwistle put down a formal motion demanding a local meeting, council leader Kath Reade stepped in to agree public talks within three weeks.

Resident John Edmondson told the town council there was a need for open discussions to let people know why they had been excluded from major housing renewal after having their hopes raised by the council for years. He said people suspected a hidden agenda to keep the district the poorest in town to enable the council to snap up the scores of boarded up houses cheaply.

He asked: "Who has made the decision to ignore us and keep us down? If you want Labour representation in Daneshouse, get your act together, because at the moment you are finished."

Coun Malik was hissed by the public gallery as he explained government cash restrictions meant only part of the area could be improved.

The council simply did not have the £40 million needed to cover the whole ward and, in any case, the entire work could not be carried out in the 10-year life of a renewal area.

To declare the entire area now would be 'absolute madness.'

He said he was committed to fighting tooth and nail for the district and would leave no stone unturned in his bid to bring about more improvements as more funds became available.

But he warned that the area would have to compete against other wards which were also in great need of repair.

But Coun Birtwistle said the people had been misled in Daneshouse - election promises within months had proved to be worthless to hundreds of Daneshouse residents.

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