A POLITICIAL row has erupted in Padiham over the campaign to restore accident and emergency services to Burnley General Hospital.

Campaigners fighting to overturn an NHS decision to phase out the casualty ward at the Casterton Avenue hospital have been compiling a protest petition, at various locations across the borough.

And after collecting 6,000 or more signatures, one of the most recent signings was held at Padiham, alongside the town’s annual duck race.

The event has been going for more than 20 years and is now a key event for the Padiham town mayor’s fund.

Town councillor Jean Cunningham said she had been asked to raise the timing of the petition rally by a concerned shopkeeper in Padiham.

Coun Cunningham said the shopkeeper thought it was “totally unacceptable” to stage a “political rally” at such an event. “People thought it was in pretty bad taste,” she added.

Ruth Wynn, democracy man-ager at Burnley Council, said: “It is my understanding that the two events had been arranged for the same day and coincided.

“Had the duck race not been there then there would still have been the petition signing.

“It is unfortunate.”