HYNDBURN councillors have been reassured that a new communication and media relation code of practice will not gag personal opinions.

The code, which relates only to information concerned with Hyndburn Community Safety Partnership, was agreed at yesterday's cabinet meeting.

It states the importance of partnership members, including the council, police and probation service, demonstrating a consistent approach to media and communication issues and states that partners must not publicly give statements which appear to criticise other agencies.

Coun Tim O'Kane was suspicious of anything that looked as though it might gag councillors and added: "We might have our own views of a partnership issue and I don't like the idea of anything which could be a gag."

But Mike Chambers, Chief Executive of Hyndburn Council, said the code did not refer to personal opinions. It was only relevant to official comments from Hyndburn Community Safety Partnership.

He said: "When an initiative comes forward it is bad if a single agency is trying to grab all the credit or discredit another group.

"Sometimes we will get something highly controversial and need a considered statement from the partnership. However, nothing will gag individuals who are free to speak as individuals."