A GOLD award to honour the service of disgraced ex-mayor Peter Swainston will be withdrawn by Burnley Town Hall bosses.

The £450 medallion memento, which is traditionally presented to retiring civic leaders, was sent away to be inscribed with his name.

But a secret meeting of town hall chiefs agreed that Coun Swainston - who resigned last month after a court conviction for gross indecency with another man in public toilets in Nelson - will never receive it.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph can reveal officers were able to stop the engraving. Had they not, it is understood the 'golden gong' would have been kept by the council as an historic record of the borough's only mayor never to complete his year in office. It means that Coun Swainston, who has vowed to remain a member of the council he has served for 20 years, will have no official part to play in next month's prestigious Mayor-making ceremony, the high point of the civic year - where he should have received the award.

His mayoress sister-in-law, Mrs Sheila Swainston, will be offered her medallion to mark her 10 months of duty - but not at the Mayor-making occasion when the flower-decorated town hall will be packed with special guests.

The informal meeting of council chiefs ruled that if she accepts the gift, a small presentation will take place in the town hall some days prior to the installation of Coun Mrs Enid Tate as the town's new mayor.

Agreements at the informal meeting have to be ratified by the full council, says a town hall spokesman.

The discussions were attended by leaders of all three political parties - Labour's Kath Reade, Liberal Democrat Gordon Birtwistle and Conservative chief Mrs Tate - together with council chief executive Roger Ellis and deputy mayor Coun Arthur Park and Mrs Park.

It is understood the decision not to give the ex mayor the medal was unopposed.

Civic duties have been carried out by Coun Park who next week will be formally sworn in as mayor-for-a-month, to meet legal requirements, prior to succession by Mrs Tate in May.

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