No councillors at Spotland and Falinge Forum

Councillor Cecile Biant, Councillor Surinder Biant and Councillor Wendy Cocks absent from the meeting

Concern was expressed that no ward councillors were in attendance at the Spotland and Falinge Forum on Thursday (15 December) to listen to residents concerns about the Turner Brothers Asbestos site in the Spodden Valley despite having voted themselves a massive 34% increase the previous evening.

Mick Coates said: "There was a presentation by a council officer asking for ideas on how savings to the council budget could be made. An initial response was that councillors should not be given a 34% increase in expenses. The Forum then agreed that any future increase should be the same as pay increases for employees.

"A written report was tabled regarding the survey on the old TBA site. This was condemned as vague and lacking any real information. It was felt that just to leave the future of the site to the current owners was not acceptable given the history of the site. The council have expressed no view with regard to the site, only to say that any proposals by the owners would be dealt with under normal planning procedures.

"A member of the Forum informed everyone that he had filmed the proceedings of the previous night's council meeting and he would make it publicly available. He also commented that all three ward councillors were present, but their only contribution was to vote in favour of the 34% increase in their expenses."

The meeting ended with the Forum expressing concern that none of the three councillors had attended.

Councillor Cecile Biant said: "Surinder and I sent our apologies to the officer (Gary Finch) and asked him to tell the residents that we both had to attend the Health, Schools and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee (a major council committee) as regular members of this body. We had to miss a previous meeting of this committee, so could not miss this one."

Wendy Cocks did not respond to an invitation to comment.