A COUNCIL leader has come out fighting and pointed to a series of ‘achievements’, amid pressure over a string of controversies.

Cllr Alyson Barnes, who leads the Labour-run Rossendale Council, came under fire at a stormy town hall meeting over the collapse of the Homes and Communities Agency vacant properties scheme.

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And there were several criticisms regarding the proposed new bus station for Rawtenstall, not least concerns over the increased cost to the borough’s operator Rosso in paying arrival charges.

But Cllr Barnes, defying Tory calls to resign, said her administration had made a number of significant gains during her four-and-a-half years in charge of the borough, including assistance given to Ski Rossendale and The Whitaker Museum to become self-governing, brokering a deal at the former Horace’s site in Bacup for a new Morrison’s, securing heritage funding for Bacup, extending Haslingden Sports Centre and refurbishing Marl Pits.

Cllr Barnes said: “We have achieved a number of things.”