AN MP today claimed voters had the right to know the long-awaited results of a Hyndburn Council inspection before next month's local elections.

Labour's Greg Pope spoke out after the Audit Commission's annual report into Hyndburn Council was delayed for at least another seven weeks.

The hold-up means voters in the borough will not know how the authority has been performing before they vote in next month's council elections.

Last month it was revealed that Hyndburn's Comprehensive Performance Assessment result had been delayed because the council had appealed against the Audit Commission's findings.

The decision was due to be announced in December 2003 but residents are still waiting to see how their council was judged.

The announcement was deferred until a separate full investigation into the council's £1.8million budget deficit was finished and has been delayed again by an appeal against the findings.

When the delay was announced, Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said people had nothing to fear and that he was confident the council would get a good rating.

Coun Britcliffe added: "If Greg Pope wants the results, he needs to get on to the government's auditors to give them to us."

All of East Lancashire's other district councils and the county councils have already had their results announced.

There is a five-tier grading system, ranging from poor, through weak, fair and good to excellent.

Opposition leader Coun Jean Battle claimed the council had been judged to be "fair", which had upset the ruling Tory group.

Mr Pope said: "It would be helpful to have the results before the election. The Audit Commission said it was not required to release council ratings before the elections.

The next set of Audit Commission results were due to be published on June 26.