CONTROVERSIAL Burnley councillor Harry Brooks has told how he had ambitions to become Burnley's first elected mayor.

His resignation as leader of the independent group, main opposition to Labour on Burnley Council, came as a shock.Speaking at his bungalow home in the Pike Hill area of the town Harry said he would have enjoyed the responsibility and power of a four year term as elected Mayor. He said it would have been a means of breaking up the party political system which had "not done the town any favours."

The councillor, who broke with the ruling Labour group to sit as an independent on Burnley Council, said: "I had to make up my mind whether to go for the position as elected mayor. It would have meant another five years until I was 73.

"I decided not to, perhaps if I had been a few years younger I would have pursued it. I think I would have been in with a serious chance but I didn't want to devote the rest of my life to it." He added: "I would never have wanted to be the traditional figurehead mayor."

The council, however, chose an executive style authority. Harry and the independents said they would not join that executive unless it was divided equally between Labour who had 24 council seats and opposition groups who also had 24.

There are now six Labour members and three Lib/Dem executive members -- or the three stooges as Harry calls them. The maverick councillor who questioned and probed most decisions taken in Burnley's council chamber over the past ten years, often in acrimonious arguments, revealed he had originally intended to step down soon after the May elections 2000.

But the independents had done so well winning seven of eight seats to become the main opposition to Labour he had decided to stay on to help and guide the newcomers.

He had then intended to resign in June or July but the town was rocked by the weekend of serious disturbances. He blamed "the foolishness of engaging in positive discrimination in favour of the ethnic minority areas" as a part reason for the troubles. He denied he was a racist but agreed he had been called that many times during rows in the council chamber especially by Deputy Mayor Coun Rafique Malik. He said: "I am not a racist in any way. I firmly believe in absolute equality for everyone. I think it is counter productive when political correctness leads to discrimination in favour of ethnic minority groups."

He said he was aware views had been expressed that the perception of ethnic populated areas such as Stoneyholme and Daneshouse receiving too large a share of resources had contributed to the summer disturbances.

That had nothing to do with his decision to resign which had been taken earlier. He said he had decided now was as a good a time as ever to go despite the possibility of further opposition gains in full council elections next May.

Harry grew up in a traditional Labour household in Burnley. He was brought up in Pheasantford Street only a coal cob's throw away from Bank Hall pit where he got his first job as an office worker. His dad Richard worked underground at Clifton pit until he was 69 and was a staunch Labour support and miners' union man.

He went to the London School of Economics as a mature student at the age of 24 and shared a flat with Frank Dobson who was to become a Labour minister and candidate for Mayor of London.

He worked in finance and administration in various universities, most recently at Loughborough where he was registrar.

On taking early retirement, he headed back to Burnley. He didn't join the Labour Party until 1990 and a year later topped the poll in a three-seat contest in Rosehill ward, the other two seats went to Tories.

But it was only two years later that he announced he had split with the Labour Party and was sitting as an independent.

He said: "I am not really a party political animal. But there were specific things including Labour talking about the Stoops estate riots being due to social disadvantage, deprivation and unsympathetic treatment when obviously they were the work of people who just wanted to make mischief."

He also objected to the way in which a certain high ranking council official was "pushed out before his time."

The way the council was run by the all-powerful Labour group seemed to him to be against the idea of open government and democracy.

He said after he became an independent at least Labour had to watch over their shoulders as he pushed issues such as the waste of money by the council's direct work department and the row over the council's translation service.

He now intends to fill his time by writing, buying a holiday home abroad -- Barbados would be nice -- and watching top class sport, especially international cricket.

Harry is a keen supporter of Burnley FC. He is a vice-president of the Clarets and his Volvo car has a BFC suffix.