I WRITE regarding the article on Thursday, January 4, regarding Cllr David Wilkinson's possible complaint to the Standards Board about five Labour and one independent councillor on Westhoughton Town Council.

The article might leave the townspeople of Westhoughton with the idea that, as a council, we are busy arguing and are not dealing with business in hand, which could not be further from the truth.

Since the councillors named in this complaint are the only ones who turn up to town council on a fortnightly basis, there are no arguments, business is run smoothly, and the hard work of those councillors continues. The public is free to attend meetings.

In the last year, there have been 19 possible meetings for councillors to attend. The Liberal Democrats have six members, making a total of 114 possible attendance. The six of them have collectively attended 26 - less than a 23 per cent attendance rate. Two of them have attended only two meetings, three of them five, and Cllr Wilkinson seven.

The story said Cllr Wilkinson declared his intent to report the six to the Standards Board at a December meeting of the council.

However, the minutes clearly show that his complaint that night was with me as chairman of the meeting, and could not have been against the other councillors.

Furthermore, Cllr Heyes, one of those he alleges to be reporting, was not at the meeting that night.

Ultimately, it is a pity Cllr Wilkinson couldn't have afforded us the same decency which we showed him, in not commenting to the media before the results of any investigation were concluded.

I am confident that there will be no investigation to answer, and can assure the townspeople of Westhoughton that their Labour and independent councillors are working very hard on their behalf, and will continue to do so.

Cllr Jim Gilfillan Leader, Westhoughton Town Council