THE board of Burnley and Padiham Community Housing have hit back in a jobs row.

Coun Harry Brooks resigned from the board after making attacking "fat cat salaries'' and describing the selection process for housing board officers as farcical.

The board has now issued a statement saying the quoted salary bill was misleading as it failed to take into account existing costs of jobs doing the same or a similar role for the housing service in Burnley.

The board and all the staff involved had been working hard to set up the new company which will take over responsibility for all Burnley council houses, organise the first year's repairs and modernisation programme and to ensure a distinct improvement in the service provided to tenants. Some £6million will be spent in the first year.

The statement goes on: "Following the unacceptable, intolerable and disruptive behaviour of Harry Brooks at the last meeting, the board agreed to ask the council to replace him on the board.

"As a company director, he had a primary obligation to work as part of a team with the rest of the board toward making the stock transfer happen smoothly.

"He also had a shared responsibility for the decisions made by the board as a whole. Clearly he felt he could not meet these requirements and towards the end of the meeting he tendered his resignation.''

They agreed the salaries of the three senior posts following independent advice from recruitment consultants.

Even then, the statement goes on, the salary levels were fixed around the lower end of comparable jobs for registered social landlords. The recruitment policy formally agreed between the housing company and the council several months ago followed advice from the consultants.

It also took into account the employment rights under European legislation of staff transferring from one business to another.

The new jobs would only be filled by existing employees if the candidate demonstrated to the board that they satisfied all the needs of the job requirements. The process was fair and objective.

Vice-chairman Marianne Hood said: "It is very sad that Harry Brooks has such a low opinion of the workforce in Burnley. We are all working very hard to improve the standards of housing available in the borough."

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