ACCOUNTANT Stephen Birtwell was right when he said a council department's records were being doctored to show that repairs to council houses were being completed on time when they were not.

But what happens when he goes through the books again and claims that, now, it has also been overcharging for jobs it does and that overpayments made by the council have not been refunded?

He is effectively denied public discussion by the council - even though the money involved is the taxpayers' and despite the alleged discrepancies amounting to thousands of pounds.

This is a most unsatisfactory response. One that is quite contrary to the council's duty to make itself accountable to the public.

It is even more disturbing that Mr Birtwell, who is not a member of Rossendale Council, but merely chairman of the Haslingden Estates Management Board, seems to have a better understanding of that requirement than councillors.

For when he brings his allegations to the Housing Committee, he finds himself cut short by the deputy chairman, Coun Christine Adamson, and is offered a meeting in private to discuss them. Why in private? Why the secrecy?

Let it be stressed that these are allegations about discrepancies and not, as yet, facts.

But let the council understand at the outset what their reaction smacks of.

To begin with, it reeks of arrogance - of disregard of the public right to know.

It smells, too, of politicised running for cover.

The Direct Labour Organisation is the council's in-house contestant in the competition with private firms for council contracts - a system to which many Labour councils are still ideologically opposed.

Is it, then, that when allegations fly that the DLO is not as efficient or cost-effective as councillors would like the public to believe, the reaction is to protect it by muffling them in private meetings?

Have the councillors at Labour-run Rossendale been too long in power that they have forgotten about open government - and the need for open books and open meetings?

They should pay heed to what happened to the last Tory Government who began to feel the same way after too long in power.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.