A FORMER councillor put tenants' lives at risk from carbon monoxide and gas leaks, a tribunal was told.

Letting agent Shabbir Ahmed, of Charles Street, Nelson, lost his appeal against Pendle Council after it carried out emergency work to make a house safe for the two adults and four children living there.

The family had called a Corgi-registered gas engineer to the property on Cross Street, Nelson, in October last year, and Pendle Council said he had confirmed a major gas leak at the house.

As well as the gas leak putting the family and their neighbours at risk of explosion, unsafe appliances were producing deadly carbon monoxide.

The council said Ahmed had not acknowledged the seriousness of the problem, and used its powers under the Housing Act 2004 to forcibly make the property safe on December 1.

Ahmed appealed against the decision, saying that the council had acted inappropriately and unreasonably, but his claim has been thrown out by the Residential Property Tribunal Service.

Ahmed, who represented Whitefield as a Liberal Demo-crat councillor from 1998 to 2002, vowed yesterday to continue to fight the council on which he used to serve.

He said: "The council took this action without properly contacting or consulting me and I will certainly be making another appeal.

"I disagree with a lot of the points the council has made and the tribunal panel did not look at all the important aspects of the case. I deny completely that the family were in any danger, and they are still living at the house."

The tribunal found that the council had not abused its powers, saying that it had simply been carrying out its statutory obligations by doing the £400 worth of work, for which it will bill Ahmed.

Paul Lloyd, public health manager for Pendle Council's private sector housing team, said: "This is the first appeal of this nature in the North of England and the success of this case is due to a thorough investigation and reasonable action taken by officers in the housing standards team."

Denise Donnelly, Pendle Council's head of private sector housing, added: "Landlords need to understand that it is unacceptable to rent out dangerous properties, and where a serious risk to the health and safety of the tenants is identified appropriate action will be carried out.

"This appeal result simply confirms that the action taken was both necessary and appropriate."