MOTORCYCLE ace Carl Fogarty has claimed councillors in his home town are too concerned with honouring people he has never heard of -- like Barbara Castle!

But if Foggy thinks he's a household name across the world, he'll have to think again -- Blackburn's Baroness said she would have to check her files to see if she he had heard of him.

Blackburn with Darwen council has refused to offer the four time World Superbike champ the freedom of the borough, and instead has offered him an alternative, one option being a civic medal.

But Carl Fogarty said he couldn't understand why the highest honour the council can bestow will always be kept for politicians rather than those who have made contributions to the borough in other ways. He said: "The other people who have got it have all been politicians. I haven't heard of any of them. Barbara Castle was one -- I thought she was the woman who trained dogs or something."

Baroness Barbara Castle was Blackburn's MP for 34 years, entering the House of Commons when Labour swept to a landslide victory in 1945. Prime Minister Harold Wilson made her Minister for Overseas Development in 1964 and the following year she became Transport Minister, a non-driver and the first woman to occupy the position. In 1968 she was made Employment and Productivity Minister, a position she occupied until Labour's defeat two years later. When asked if she had heard of the motorcycle racer, Baroness Castle said: "I probably have heard of him, but I would have to look at my files." She added: "I suggest he takes the matter up with his MP Jack Straw."

The former world champion motorcyclist said he was about to jet off to Italy and would think about the council's offer when he had got "the next week or two out of the way". He added: "There are more important things to think about than this."

Carl said he was "not going to lose sleep" over the issue, but that other sportsman had told him he deserved "the ultimate" recognition from his home town.

He said: "When I have spoken to other people, everyone has said the same - that they cannot believe the council won't give me the freedom of the borough. They have said it's incredible for what I have done.

"100 per cent of people I have spoken to said for what I have done they should give me the ultimate thing.

"But the council don't break with tradition. No one from sport will ever get it, not even Jack Walker got it. I don't understand it at all."

Carl added that sportsmen in other towns get the highest honour "for not doing half as much" as he has.

Malcolm Doherty, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, confirmed the council was still awaiting Carl Fogarty's response to the offer of a civic medal.

Councillor Doherty said: "He said he would get back to us, and the last thing we want to be doing is mithering him if he doesn't want to be mithered."