YOU'VE got to hand it to our elected officials. When they are given licence to represent us, they really don't hold back.

In fact, they are so intent on "representing" us, warts and all, that it seems they even chuck in our foibles when making decisions, deliberately messing things up.

How else would you explain the debacle over Burnley Contact Centre?

Let me explain. It's a call centre in a former bank building which was set up by the council last year.

A single contact point for all council services. A good idea, it would seem.

The thing is, it was only supposed to cost £250,000 but ended up taking £750,000 out of resources.

Then it turned out the desks were too small for customers and staff.

Not that the customers should be complaining the council fitted the centre out with designer chairs for them to sit in which each cost about the same as a Fiat Uno (not really, but you take my point).

The official word was that this sort of luxury had nothing nothing at all to do with the original cost estimates trebling.

Oh, and its opening was delayed from May to September.

Now, in what has been described as "the latest in a saga of mess-ups" by one Tory councillor at the Labour-run authority, councillors are being asked to sanction another £20,000 for the centre.

The reason?

Well, it would seem someone forgot to remember the building would need cleaning and maintaning, so the council didn't budget for it.

As council leader Stuart Caddy explained: "Unfortunately the additional cleaning with regard to the upstairs of the building hadn't been taken into account. It was just an error that was missed in the first proposal."

Well that's all well and good Stuart. The townspeople of Burnley will be more than happy to hand over £20,000 since you put it like that!

After all, they tell us the contact centre has been a resounding success, helping more than 250,000 callers since it opened.

It took me a day and a half to get through to this "resounding success" last week. It would have been quicker for me to crawl on my belly to the council offices. But there you go.

We musn't be too harsh on the council for having this vision.

I'd probably get a few things wrong too if I had my hands on a huge budget and was responsible for controlling public services. You would too, no doubt.

Of course councillors will make mistakes they are ordinary people hired to represent us and they're just like us.

As for the paid council officers who actually do all the donkey work and make the mistakes in the first place? Well, we can't be too harsh on them either. Because they have forfeited lucrative careers in business to be public servants, damned to a lifetime of above inflation pay rises, political correctness and flexi-time.

Of course, if the officers and councillors were working for private businesses, maybe they would have been sacked by now.