THE 'rotating chairs' decision by Pendle Council has been welcomed by the Liberal Democratic group as common sense, forcing the three parties to work together.

No party has overall power and it has been decided to rotate chairmanships.

"It is very clear that following the elections no single party has a mandate to rule," said Liberal chairman Coun Richard Nelson.

"Whether by accident or design, the electors actually voted for the three parties to work together to run the council."

He said the system chosen was sensible allowing the council business to be carried out effectively while at the same time forcing the parties to work together.

"At the same time, any party that goes into the year intent on wrecking tactics will soon find they are getting nowhere," he added.

Former council leader Alan Davies said the Labour party would have to change their aggressive and negative approach if they wanted support from other council members.

"They are going to have to stop using meetings to make aggressive personal attacks on other councillors and they are going to have to stop telling lie after lie to the people of Pendle," he said.

Coun Davies said a large amount of council business now took place in the five area committees which all had one party with a majority and an elected chairman.

"In practice in most areas nothing will change," he said.

For the rest of the business, the new system would work well if all three parties co-operated in a sensible way. The other two groups must understand they now shared the responsibility of running the council and the luxuries of opposition for the sake of it were now over.

Labour group leader Coun Azhar Ali accused the Lib Dems of not having the bottle to take committee chairmanships and said they should all resign.

Coun Ali added: "They certainly have lost the mandate of the electorate.

"They should not abdicate their duties as the largest party but if they have chosen to do so it is only fair on the people of Pendle that all 23 members resign and allow the electorate of Pendle to elect councillors who will carry out their duty to serve Pendle.

"It is clear that if the Lib Dems cannot play by their rules they want to take their bat and ball home."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.