LABOUR returned to power at Burnley Council on Wednesday night after its boss Mark Townsend was elected leader.

He received 28 votes with only three councillors voting against him out of the 45.
A bid by Independent Cllr David Roper to stand for the top job failed after he was not seconded.

Labour lost control of the council in May last year when after the party fell one seat short of keeping control in local elections.

Since then a coalition was led by the Burnley and Padiham Independent Party’s Cllr Charlie Briggs with the support of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups.

This fell apart when new Tory leader Cllr Alan Hosker removed its two members Cllrs Cosima Towneley and Ivor Emo from the ruling executive.

LibDem leader Cllr Gordon Birtwistle refused to accept Cllr Hosker and his other nomination Cllr Andrew Newhouse as replacements and earlier this month Cllr Briggs resigned.

After his election as new leader Cllr Townsend, who resigned as Burnley’s deputy Mayor, said: “I think residents will be pleased and maybe even relieved that we have been able to make a decision.

"I think it would have been unforgivable if we had not made a decision.

"I am sure it will bring an unsettling and destabilising few weeks to an end.

"These are very challenging times because we have a health emergency and a jobs crisis.

"We are at the top of a league that we definitely do not want to be top of when you look at the infection rates for Covid-19 and we face a very difficult autumn and winter in front of us.

"What I want to do now is turn a page. What has happened is in the past. We now need to look forward not back, outwards not inwards.

"The Labour group that I lead do not have a majority on this council.

"There will need to be consensus and there will need to be goodwill going forward. I am certainly willing to play my part in that.

"First of all we need to meet the local demands of the health emergency.

"We need to do everything we can as a council working with partners to get on top of this virus.

"We need to support local workers and businesses through the jobs crisis.

"We need to fix the black hole in the council’s finances.

"But more than anything in these early weeks we need to restore residents’ confidence in this council after a turbulent few weeks.

"Let’s get stability, let’s bring some decisive leadership and let’s have a clear direction at the town hall so that people look at this town hall and they know that there’s a clear strategy going forward."

Cllr Birtwistle said there was only one person to blame for the sad collapse of the coalition after 16 months accusing Cllr Hosker of ’throwing a hand grenade’ into it.

Conservative Cllr Tom Commis said: "It is a matter of record that the LibDems were the ones that basically ended the coalition."

Cllr Hosker said the end of the coalition was sad but promised to do all he and his party could to work with Labour for the benefit of the town.

Cllr Briggs said it was a sad day when he resigned and said he was proud of the coalition’s achievements.

Cllr Roper said: "Covid-19 is a lot less pandemic than it was four months ago. So we don’t need to be bothering as much about Covid-19."

Cllr Townsend appointed six executive members: deputy leader, health and wellbeing Cllr Lian Pate; housing Cllr John Harbour; com munity and environmental services Cllr Afrasiab Anwar; economy and growth Cllr Asif Raja; resources Cllr Sue Graham.