SENIOR police officers met with council representatives this week for an urgent meeting to discuss the recent increase in street violence in Nelson.

The move came after a 25-man street brawl in Bradshaw Street last month in which one man was taken to hospital suffering from gunshot wounds.

During a remand hearing at Burnley Magistrates two weeks ago, a solicitor for the Crown Prosecution Service spoke of her fears of a volatile situation in the town if strong measures were not put in place by the police.

Inspector Paul Robinson, geographic inspector for Nelson and Brierfield, agreed that officers had come across people with weapons from baseball bats, hockey sticks and cricket bats, and on more rare occasions hammers, knives and firearms.

Last week top police officers in Pendle called a meeting with the council's chief executive, Stephen Barnes, and other council officers, to discuss the increasing problem and how it could be best dealt with.

The private meeting was held at Nelson Town Hall this week and was attended by Mr Barnes for Pendle Council, Superintendent Steve Hartley, the Mayor of Pendle, Councillor Mohammad Iqbal, leader of the council, Coun Alan Davies, members of the executive and other officers, including Inspector Robinson.

It was agreed that further meetings were needed to handle the recent street violence. Mr Barnes said he did not want to comment on the details of the meeting at this stage as it was a sensitive matter.

Mr Robinson said: "It was very positive meeting. The current problems that we have been experiencing in various parts of Pendle West area were discussed.

"There are going to have to be further meetings to talk about it in more detail. We got as much out of the meeting as we would expect."