WHAT a stinking stew we find served up to the taxpayers of Burnley by councillors as the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reveals the scandal of a shut-down caf owned by the town hall.

Thousands of pounds have been lost. And as well as trying to cover that up, crackpot accounting was used to cloak the truth.

True, the £19,000 in unpaid rent which councillors wrote off in a secret deal with the tenants of the suddenly-closed Old Stables Caf in Towneley Park - in return for them clearing off - is a drop in the ocean, given the size of the council's multi-million-pound budget.

But they should try telling that to the hundreds of householders they take to court each year over unpaid council tax.

And they should ask the hard-pressed taxpayers, who pick up the tab, whether they think this hushed-up deal is either fair or good management. For the fact is that when the people running the caf got behind with their rent, the council allowed them to get deeper in debt for two whole years - and then wiped the slate clean in order to be rid of the problem.

Even then, there is more economic idiocy.

About a third of the way into this mess, they were offering rent reductions in return for the tenants improving their act.

They didn't, so they rent stayed as first agreed.

But, on the books, the council pretended the rent had gone down - so that officially the loss to the town was half of what it really was!

How ridiculous!

And how outrageous the whole affair is.

Not only are the councillors and officials to blame for watching the problem pile up, they have dealt with it in an underhand way and sauced it with stupidity along the way.

They should be called to account.

Bring in the district auditor.

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