By CRAIG LOWEThe For Darwen Party have pulled out of the Liberal-Conservative-For Darwen coalition running the town.
The three parties originally joined forces after a split vote in 2007, with many local people showing their support for the newly formed For Darwen Party run by Tony Melia.
However, an extraordinary meeting was held on Thursday after the party fell out with the Liberal Democrats. As a result the council is currently in turmoil and the situation could end up costing the town millions of pounds in lost funding if the situation isn't resolved quickly. It all depends on how the government views the situation when it reviews the council next month.
Local Liberal Democrat leader David Foster told the Lancashire Telegraph “My priority is to ensure the council goes into the assessment with a stable administration, because of the possible consequences in terms of funding.”
The row has escalated to the current status following disagreements about the wording on October's referendum on Darwen Town Council. For Darwen party have been accused of spitting their dummy out by local Tory leader Coun Rigby.
Trevor Maxfield, For Darwen deputy leader, defended the parties controversial decision: “We agreed to abide by the decision as long as we were in the partnership – but we’re not part of it so we feel completely justified.”
The future leadership of the council is uncertain with multiple options available. For Darwen could join forces with Labour or Liberal Democrats and Conservatives could join forces with Labour to oust For Darwen plus a range of other permutations - what would you like to see happen?
What do you want for the future of Darwen's council? What do you think of For Darwen's decision to pull out? After voting the coalition into power how do you think they performed? What are your thoughts on For Darwen? Leave comments on this page or start discussions in the forum. We will also start a new web poll - if you could have one party running the council who would it be?
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