A ROW has erupted after councillors claimed £6.5million of unemployment cash was not being spent transparently.

Burnley Council members have complained over how a Government cash pot handed to the authority was doled out behind closed doors.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed in September how councillors had launched an investigation after suggestions the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) – which should be spent on reducing ‘worklessness’ – was being used to fund unrelated projects.

Now members are unhappy that the unelected Burnley Action Partnership (BAP), which decided how the WNF was spent on behalf of Burnley Council, has failed to publish how it sliced up the money.

It has not released minutes of its decision-making process or put them on its website, despite repeated requests this week from the Lancashire Telegraph.

Coun Howard Baker, one of the councillors looking at how WNF has been spent in Burnley, said: “BAP keeps saying the minutes of meetings will go up on the website but they never do and the more they put it off, the worse it looks.

“We asked for these minutes two months ago and not providing them looks like a political decision, not a technical one.”

Coun Jonathan Gilbert, pictured, added: “BAP is responsible for administering £6.5million and we do not know how they make their decisions.”

The Lancashire Telegraph was told by BAP staff that minutes of the meeting concerning WNF could not be emailed or posted because it would cost too much.

Meanwhile, the group’s website was last updated in June 2007, due to technical problems, according to bosses.