COUNCILLORS were outraged at accusations of ‘backroom deals’ surrounding an upcoming inquiry into Bolton’s planning system.

Members of the Conservative and Labour groups were furious with comments made on the Bolton Liberal Democrat’s twitter account during a meeting of the full council, which suggested a ‘backroom deal’ had taken place regarding how the inquiry — due to be held in October — will be run.

There have been disagreements between all parties in recent months about how members of the public will be able to contribute to the inquiry, which will be run by the Local Government Association.

Tory Cllr Norman Critchley, who was behind the original motion to bring about the inquiry in December, brought another motion to tonight’s meeting.

The original wording of his motion stated: “Having already taken a decision to hold an independent Planning Enquiry, I propose that this council also confirms the importance of this enquiry be transparent and open to all, with members of the public being given the opportunity to submit evidence to the panel, which the panel can choose to investigate further if they so wish.

In order for the residents to have confidence in this enquiry, members of the public must be given the opportunity to contribute.”

However, before the start of the meeting, the section from where it states ‘members of the public’ to the end had been removed.

He explained to his colleagues that this was because his group had received information that members of the public can indeed give evidence directly to the planning inspector, who can then feed it directly to the independent inquiry.

He said he was also told by the ruling Labour group that the public will be fully informed of the ways in which they can be involved, via a forthcoming press statement.

However, the Lib Dem twitter account had already made the allegation of backroom deals, something which outraged Cllr Critchley and his colleagues.

He said: “There was no backroom deal, we had an open and honest discussion about policy.

'To indicate that this council would stoop so low as to do a backroom deal on something as important as this is unforgivable and I will never accept that."

Lib Dem leader Cllr Roger Hayes said he was not behind the tweet and had not seen it.