TOWN hall bosses are seeking legal advice in a row over who should run a council-owned cafe and restaurant.

The Old Stables next to Burnley's historic Towneley Hall is the setting for new controversy after present tenant Mary Burrows said she was staying put.

Councillors, poised to accept the best bid from a list of firms eager to take on the eating house, have suspended a decision and opted to seek legal advice after receiving a bombshell claim from Mrs Burrows that she is a secure tenant and no-one else has any right to move in.

If she is correct, the council could lose thousands of pounds in rent each year because it cannot accept the highest tender.

Independent councillor Harry Brooks today claimed the council had mismanaged the whole issue.

Mrs Burrows and business partner Wilfred Campbell say they have spent £100,000 on improvements to the restaurant since moving in late last year.

Before that, the council wrote off more than £19,000 in unpaid rent from the previous tenant and set up a special working group to ensure there were no future problems. The authority gave Mrs Burrows a short term contract with a six months rent free period and rental of £2,500 per annum for the remainder, terminating at the end of the year, by which time the new contract would have been put out to open tender.

The council's community services director Ian Saville today said the council was seeking further legal advice.

"The current tenants want to stay and feel they ought to be allowed to do so because they argue they have a formal tenancy."

Coun Brooks says it is amazing the council had got itself into its present position after giving a full assurance to members last year that a proper tenancy exercise would be carried out.

He is calling for a full independent inquiry and adds: "It seems absurd in view of past problems that the council's position appears yet again to have been put at risk."

Mrs Burrows, who has also tendered for the new contract, today expressed surprise that news of her protected tenancy claim had come as a shock. "I have been telling them since February," she added.

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