A COUNCILLOR today hit out after being banned from speaking on plans to build a waste plant in his ward - because he'd already handed in a petition about it.

Coun Paul Browne, leader of the Lib Dem group on Blackburn with Darwen Council, was told by legal officers that because he had already put forward the petition, he had an 'interest' in the result so could not speak on it.

Then Coun Browne was advised it would be better for him to leave the meeting while the plan, for a giant waste transfer station off Goosehouse Lane, Chapels, Darwen, was discussed.

Despite the petition, which contained hundreds of signatures, the scheme which would involve rubbish from across the borough being delivered to the centre and split up before processing, was approved.

It is due to be operational by 2010.

Coun Browne, the report to the planning and highways committee stated, had also sent a letter of objection on behalf of residents.

He said: "I think it is a poor do when a councillor can't speak on behalf of the people he represents at a meeting.

"Of course I have an interest, because it is interesting my constituents. But I do not have a financial interest in the project, or anything else like that.

"Because I have acted on behalf of my residents, I have been denied the right to speak on their behalf."

Standard local government rules state that if a councillor expresses an opinion on a planning application before a meeting, they cannot speak.

Coun Jim Smith, chairman of the committee, said: "It is just one of the rules we have to deal with."

The waste transfer station is one of nine being built in Lancashire as part of the county's £75million rubbish revolution, designed to reduce the amount of landfill dumping which takes place.

All Blackburn with Darwen's rubbish will go to the Chapels centre, where garden waste will be composted.

Non-recyclable rubbish will be forwarded to a giant plant in Huncoat.