A CANON who stepped in to break up a political wrangle between two councillors at an education scrutiny meeting said: "This is not why we are here."

Committee chair Coun Maureen McGarvey said she was speaking out to stop councillor Mahfooz Hussain turning a discussion about Blackburn with Darwen Schools Causing Concern into "political spin."

Church of England diocese representative, Canon Peter Ballard, then urged both councillors not to lose sight of the committee's role.

Coun McGarvey accused Coun Hussain, executive member for education and lifelong learning, of turning the council education overview and scrutiny meeting political. She claimed he described everything in his department as "excellent" and was distracting from the checks the committee was trying to carry out.

The full team of education directors and officers were present to explain how the LEA flags up and then deals with schools that are causing concern.

Ian Kendrick, assistant director for school improvement, gave a presentation in front of school governors, councillors, teachers, and members of the youth parliament, about the role of the LEA in relation to schools and Ofsted.

The outburst came after discussing how problem schools were identified and dealt with. Councillors clashed over how confidential discussions were used to tackle problems "head on".