A ROW has erupted over the council’s role in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, as the town’s Conservatives were accused of not attending a community safety panel for two years.

At a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Tory leader David Greenhalgh asked councillors to send a ‘clear message’ that it would not tolerate vandalism, harassment, underage street drinking and other offences.

However, his motion to create a ‘task and finish’ group to tackle the issue was voted down by Labour, who claimed that such work is already carried out by a separate board — the Be Safe Partnership — which the Tories have failed to attend.

Labour’s cabinet member for community safety, Cllr Derek Burrows, said that new figures showed a reduction in anti-social behaviour in Bolton, which he believed made it the best-performing borough in Greater Manchester. He also listed a number of Be Safe meetings that Conservative councillor Colin Shaw, the opposition party's designated representative on the committee, had missed.

Cllr Greenhalgh said that the lack of attendance was ‘unacceptable’.

He said: “It is completely unacceptable that a member of this group has not attended Be Safe, and that member will be taken off and replaced.

“It is absolutely disgraceful and I am not defending that, I am appalled by it.

“I am also annoyed that nobody on that committee has let me know of the non-attendance of that person.”

According to Labour, Cllr Shaw did not attend or send apologies for Be Safe Partnership meetings in June and November 2016 or February and June of this year.

The Bolton News has attempted to contact Cllr Shaw for a comment.

Labour councillor Guy Harkin accused the Tories of using this motion to ‘play to the gallery’ in their own wards, following serious concerns about anti-social behaviour in areas such as Bradshaw. However, the Tory leader said that he was ‘flabbergasted’ that Labour had not supported his plan to carry out an in-depth study into crime and anti-social behaviour.

He added: “I am genuinely surprised. Far from it being a grandstanding motion, it was a genuine motion put forward for us as a council to do a concentrated piece of work. It is not already being done. Be Safe also deals with other aspects of crime, including extremism, racist attacks, EDL marches and all of those type of things as well as low-level crime.

“This would be geared to look at the issue in depth — far more so than a meeting of Be Safe can.”

The Be Safe Partnership is made up of representatives from the council, police, and other bodies and its remit is to reduce crime and reassure communities.

Cllr Sue Haworth said that the award-winning Be Safe scheme is something for Bolton to be proud of and that the Tory councillors should be using it to help achieve their aims.

Conservative councillor Christine Wild warned that, by not taking action, the council risked ‘sleepwalking into a town where lawlessness and disorder are seen as normal’.

UKIP, who leader Cllr Sean Hornby had earlier raised concerns over cuts to police services, and Lib Dem Cllr Andrew Martin voted in favour of the motion.