A SENIOR councillor has rejected calls for his resignation after a row about a planning application.

Chairman of Pendle Council's Nelson committee, Lib Dem Coun David Foster, said he had not done anything wrong over the proposal for Langholme Street in the town.

But the leader of the borough's Labour group Coun Mohammad Iqbal said Coun Foster should "do the decent thing" and resign.

At last month's meeting Coun Foster was accused of helping a party campaigner on a planning application for a house extension.

Neighbours protesting against the two-storey ext-ension told the meeting they had seen Coun Foster in applicant Ishtiaq Ahmed's back garden, discussing plans with builders.

Coun Foster denied the claims. But at the latest meeting this week, Mr Ahmed's planning agent John Clancy said he had discussed the plans with Coun Foster.

Opposition councillors said that under the members' code of conduct, Coun Foster's help constituted a personal interest in the application, meaning he should not have taken part in any of the committee discussions about it.

And at this month's meet-ing, Coun Foster declared an interest and left the room during the debate But in May, he had taken a full part in the debate and vote to defer decision over the proposals to the next meeting.

Coun Iqbal said he was considering lodging a formal complaint to the council's standards board if Coun Foster did not resign voluntarily as committee chairman.

He said: "He should do the decent thing and tender his resig-nation immed-iately.

"He has tried to wriggle out of this and has damaged the reputation of genuine hard working councillors. He has to go."

But Coun Foster said he had not broken any rules.

He said that he only declared an interest at the second meeting because the code of conduct for councillors had been changed since the May hearing.

Coun Foster said the code of conduct now blocked members from taking part in debates involving "acquaintances" as well as "family and friends".

He said: "In my capacity as a councillor and committee chairman, I gave Mr Ahmed some advice on what kind of development would be most appropriate there.

"I did discuss it with him and with Mr Clancy but at the end of the day that's part and parcel of being a councillor and I'm entitled to do that.

"A lot of people come to their councillor and ask for advice and I have pointed a lot of people in the right direction.

"If people want to throw knives at my back then they can carry on because my back's very broad.

"I will not be resigning. They can take me to the standards board as they have a perfect right to do, but I will come out of it with my head held high."

The extension was approved after the appli-cant agreed to reduce its size and neighbours withdrew their object-ions.