AN OUSTED councillor at the centre of a long running row has called for a public inquiry into the dispute.

Tom Sharratt, a Labour county councillor for Samlesbury for the last 16 years, was de-selected at a branch meeting of his party last month.

And he claims he has been the subject of four disciplinary hearings in the last three years.

The row with the regional office has rumbled on for over six years but Labour officials deny Mr Sharratt has been disciplined.

Key party workers in the Samlesbury and Higher Walton branch of the Labour Party have been suspended from their posts.

Account and minute books have also been seized by the regional officials.

Mr Sharratt, a former Lancashire Evening Telegraph journalist from Coupe Green, is now considering standing as an Independent in the coming council elections. Local people have rallied behind him and want him to stay on as their representative.

Mr Sharratt said: "I fully appreciate that Labour Party bosses never refer to disciplinary tribunals as such.

"They use other names to cloak their true purpose, such as 'regional executive committee inquiry' and 'constituency investigation'.

"The hearings are conducted as criminal prosecutions but the defendant are not allowed to know in advance what they are accused of, what rules they have broken or who their accusers are."

"I therefore invite the regional office to set up an independent public inquiry under a legally qualified chairman.

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