[Ken Moss]

The illusion seems to be for some people that the Tories and Labour are at each other's throats on a permanent basis and I'm happy to say that this isn't true, in fact committee meetings where no members of the Cabinet are present are usually very productive as the oneupmanship is removed.

The party divisions basically boil down to money at local level and opposition to the way in which it is spent. Currently, the Conservatives are spending our tax money as if it is going out of fashion and there is nothing that Labour can do because the Leader of the Council won't hold full council meetings so that we can vote.

The financial system within the Cabinet has engineered a situation where Peter Britcliffe has given himself £100k to spend on whatever he likes. None of that can be proven to be electioneering but I imagine that Baxenden will be in for a few heavily-publicised handouts before the bye-election.

Expect to see many more Conservative councillors presenting cheques to people in The Observer before the next round of elections. Just remember that it is your taxes that are paying for these donations whilst each of the wards are being told that there is no money for repairs and ungrades to vital services.