PROTESTERS again gathered outside Bolton Town Hall tonight to call for council leader Cliff Morris to resign.

The campaigners also handed in a petition to the meeting of full council, with more than 3,700 signatures demanding Cllr Morris step down.

There were cheers and chants of “out, out, out” as the petition was handed to the mayor, Cllr Lynda Byrne.

At the same time as the protest against Cllr Morris, trade union members held a lobby to register their opposition to the council’s budget cut proposals.

Campaigners last held a rally calling for Cllr Morris to step down ahead of the last full council meeting in November, after it was revealed that the council had used emergency powers to give a £300,000 grant to Asons Solicitors.

However, protest organisers' expectations that hundreds of people might turn up to this latest demonstration were not met, with only a few dozen in attendance.

Maxine Saboor, from Heaton, said: “The decisions the council is making are off the wall. I have no faith in Cllr Morris whatsoever.

“It is very inspiring to me to see so many people coming to these protests and uniting on these issues.

“I am born and bred in Bolton and I’m proud to be, but I’m starting to tell people not to move here because of how things have gone.”

Carol Forshaw, also from Heaton, added: “I don’t fully understand all of the arithmetic behind it, but I am a Bolton taxpayer and it makes me angry that there are cuts to services when money is being spent on things that it shouldn’t be.

“My main issue is with the Asons grant. I just don’t see why that was done at all, and done under emergency powers.

“I have never been involved with anything like this before, but what has happened in the last few months has made me really angry.”

Tonight’s meeting was the council’s first to be broadcast live on the internet and — unlike previous meetings — it was not screened in any other council buildings as a result.

Councillors voted at the meeting to approve plans for the council to cut more than £12 million from its budget, as well as using £30 million of its cash reserves to offset the need for further savings.

Cllr Morris also announced that the council would be allocating half a million pounds to fight poverty in the borough.

He said the new scheme could result in “real change” to future budgets by reducing the cost of poverty and increasing employment.

He also faced questions on issues including the Asons grant and the borough's proposed new cycle track.

For more coverage of the council meeting, see our live blog and Friday's paper.