A COUNCILLOR is questioning a District Auditor's inquiry into £19,000 debts run up by the people who used to run the council-owned cafe at Towneley Park.

Harry Brooks says he is unhappy that the auditor - the local government watchdog - chose not to challenge Burnley council's decision to waive the debts.

The auditor, Tim Watkinson, said the council was right to avoid further debts and a deterioration in cafe standards by ending the tenancy at no legal cost. It could have been costly to recover the money from the tenants, who, he said, were close to insolvency.

Councillor Brooks said: "I am concerned that tenants who took over a successful business and turned it into a failure should be allowed to walk away without paying a penny.

"I simply do not believe that they could not have paid anything at all and that council-taxpayers should be stuck with the whole of the bill."

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