A REBEL tenants' boss has been elected to the shadow board of the of the multi million pounds company earmarked to take over Burnley's entire council housing stock.

Firebrand Tony Brankin swept to victory in a ballot to find a Padiham area director for the board - just a month after Burnley council banned him from Padiham's area management committee after finding him guilty of malpractice.

Now the man who has branded the £74 million sell-off of the council stock to a new publicly-owned housing group a "massive con trick" finds himself a major driving force in the company whose creation he opposes.

And council housing chiefs, who carried out a year-long investigation into his activities and said he wasn't fit to represent Padiham tenants, will have to learn to work with the rebel they say tried to use council cash to buy a tenants' mini bus without consent - and accept him as a leader of all of Burnley's 5,600 council house tenants, if the planned transfer goes ahead.

Mr Brankin - accused by one councillor last year of organising a cheap booze run to France for tenants - lambasted council chiefs when he addressed the housing committee which issued the ban.

He told them he had been the victim of a witch-hunt, described the investigation as a farce, accused council officers of lying and said he would take his case to the Ombudsman and the European Court of Human Rights.

"It is all unreasonable and unfair and I am fighting it," he said.

Mr Brankin, 52, a former chairman of Padiham tenants, was not available for comment today, but a friend said he was cock-a-hoop over his election victory which saw him take more than 60 per cent of the vote. He will take his place on the 18-man shadow board of directors at its first meeting planned for later this month

He says he remains firmly opposed to the council house sell-off but fought to ensure Padiham tenants were properly represented.

He said earlier: "The council is trying to railroad tenants into accepting the sell off with scare stories about colossal rent rises if they do not agree.

"The transfer is just a way of conning outsiders into putting millions of pounds into housing in Burnley which will still be run by the same failed management we have at the moment and which has presided over the massive decline in the standard of council houses.

"I don't agree with any of it, but I am fighting the election to represent the interests of council tenants in Padiham."

Following the Brankin investigation, the council "found proved" allegations that Mr Brankin attempted to buy the £3,000 mini bus without permission; colluded and threatened legal action to pressure the council to buy the bus; altered a financial record and issued a cheque without available funds in the committee's bank account.

Seven allegations were not found proved and the panel found Mr Brankin had done nothing for personal gain.

Mr Brankin has always and still maintains his total innocence.

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