Gordon Birtwistle & Burnley Liberal Democrats

 

The leaflet also claimed that the Council intended to destroy a mosque and made false claims that Labour’s candidate had provided funds and delivered a project to improve road safety.

 

Burnley Council have put out a statement saying that the claims about the destruction of homes are “false”.

 

David Brown, Burnley Council’s Director of Environment responsible for planning, told residents in a statement: “An election leaflet is circulating in your area containing incorrect information. There are no plans by Burnley Council to demolish the Mosque being built in Burns Street and it is factually incorrect to state ‘most’ of the houses will be
demolished.”

 

The Liberal Democrat election agent in the ward, Darren Reynolds, said, “The police are considering an investigation because the leaflet makes false claims about a candidate, and that’s illegal. The leaflet also has no ‘imprint’ to say which individual was responsible for making false claims. That’s also illegal and could hinder any investigation.

 

“Amazingly, the false claims about the Council’s regeneration plans are not illegal; they’re just wrong. I think it should be illegal to make any false statements in an election campaign with the intention of unfairly influencing the result.

 

“I also have a problem with the withdrawal of the leaflet. Labour have withdrawn it, but that’s the end of it. They’re not going to go round collecting the leaflets up again, and they’re not going to deliver a retraction through the letterbox. All they’ve done is tell the Returning Officer they are retracting the leaflet and that’s the end of the matter. How that makes any difference I’ve no idea.”

 

The area’s regeneration earlier made the headlines when the town’s Labour MP came out of maternity leave especially to generate publicity around a petition against the homes’ destruction.

 

Coun Reynolds added, “I don’t know whether the local Labour activists hoodwinked the MP or whether she knew the claims were false, but either way it is an affront to democracy. The Lib Dem-led Council is a listening Council. There is a genuine offer for people living in regeneration areas to give the Council their views on what they think should be done in their area. We are residents ourselves. We have changed the plans before in response to residents, and if that is what residents want, we will do it again.”