AN EAST Lancashire council today stands accused of presiding over a secretive and confused organisation where staff morale has been allowed to plummet and hit rock-bottom.

And to make matters worse the staff survey, carried out last year, which turned a harsh light on the dusty corridors of power at Hyndburn Council was itself kept secret, we reveal today.

Why was it left mouldering in an obscure corner of the council's computer information network? It would surely be difficult to imagine a more startling case of self-fulfilling administrative disaster.

The deputy chief executive says he does not know why the survey -- in which staff complained of low and deteriorating morale and poor leadership -- was not made public. He actually thought it had been discussed out in the open when in fact it was languishing ignored and unread behind some blank computer screen. So much for the municipal "modernisation" about which the Government loves to sermonise and which was the platform for this apparently empty gesture towards local democracy.

As one employee told the survey organisers: Heaven help the public when the staff don't even know who works here.

The phrase "Behind closed doors" may have become a tired cliche, but its inherent warning -- that when the public and the Press are denied the public information they are due in a democratic society dangers lurk -- still carries much force.

The fact is that this document should not have been consigned to a hi-tech graveyard but should have been made available: its findings discussed and acted upon, not just for the benefit of the beleaguered staff but, more importantly even than that, to make sure the people of Hyndburn get the best service which they are due.

The survey makes damning reading -- the charge laid against the council is that it is secretive and prey to confusion and poor direction from above. It is a case which the leaders of the authority should have had the courage to answer.

Now, we are told, senior and middle management are to embark on a training programme to improve things. Let us hope one item on the course programme will be: How to speak up in public.