A LEADING policeman, a retired magistrates' clerk and a council of mosques secretary are set to be joined by a borough resident on a new standards panel set up by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

The standards committee will lay down the rules for councillors' behaviour, although the power to take action over inappropriate conduct will lie with a regional standards body.

Chief Superintendent Eddie Walsh, divisional police commander for Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley -- who is soon to retire -- will be a member. He will be joined by former magistrates' clerk Laurence Loft and Tahil Wadee, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques.

And the council is appealing for a resident of the borough to come forward and fill the last remaining place on the standards committee, which also includes four councillors. The committee is expected to meet four times a year to lay down a code of conduct for councillors and establish a whistleblowers' charter for people who expose wrongdoing within the town hall. It will also advise councillors on when to declare any conflicts of interest.

The councillors on the panel are Labour members Coun Andy Kay and Coun Tony Humphrys, Lib Dem Coun Karimeh Foster and Conservative Gordon Taylor.

It will be chaired by one of the independent members -- all of whom will be unpaid except for out-of-pocket expenses.

Mr Loft, who helped East Lancashire magistrates deal with points of law for 17 years, said: "It is important that this panel has strong independent elements. I think that local government in this country is very good, but there are sometimes isolated problems which damage the public's perception. The committee's role will be to give decent guidelines to help councillors uphold the standards."

Committee vice-chairman Coun Kay said: "We have tried to get a balance between people who have experience of larger organisations and probity issues and people who can secure the confidence of the public through their impartiality and fairness."

The committee's first meeting was to be held tonight, but has been postponed to August 9 because one of the independent members had a prior engagement.