A TOWN resident came to a full council meeting and accused it of costly 'stupidity'.

John Rowe from Bank Top in Burnley give a list of what he claimed were expensive mistake by borough bosses.

His attack on the conduct of the local authority over many years was followed by a fierce row over then the borough's Local Plan was fit for purpose.

Mr Rowe used public question time at Burnley Council's full meeting at the town's Mechanics Theatre to make his criticisms.

He said: "I would say that stupidity is making decisions which are of no benefit to yourself and harm the interests of others as Burnley Council has done."

Mr Rowe cited as examples the £300,000 purchase of Wood Top School for redevelopment which never happened, the demolition of the adjacent historic Claremont Villas and the handing of housing sites to developers for £1 each.

He said residents had paid the price in their council tax and said the best way to stop the errors was to replace the current executive system with the old multi-party committee structure where councillors were more likely to reject council officers recommendations.

Burnley Council leader Cllr Afrasiab Anwar replied that the review of the current executive governance system had found no reasons to revert to the committee structure.

The meeting then debated a Conservative motion accusing the borough's Local Plan of allocating too many green spaces for housing or industrial development.

Its proposer Cllr Don Whitaker said the development blue print was 'not fit for purpose' and should be scrapped and rewritten.

The council then voted down an amendment by the Green Party's leader Cllr Andy Fewings seeking to put combating climate change at the heart of borough planning policy.

It then replaced the Conservative motion with an amended one proposed by Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Gordon Birtwistle which said the current plan was developed in accordance with statutory guidance.

It called for 'sustainability' to be made a priority for planning decisions but hailed the success of the eight-year-old document in securing more than 1,500 new homes on 'brownfield' previously developed sites.

The motion, seconded by Labour deputy leader of the council Cllr Sue Graham, called on the government to scrap plans to 'centralise' planning powers in Whitehall at the expense of local authority decision making.

Cllr Whitaker said afterwards: "I am disappointed. We need a local plan which prioritises empty properties and brownfield development."