IN another episode of the upheaval that surrounds Hyndburn Council's lone independent and balance-of-power holder, Councillor Adrian Shurmer, we find him today refusing to appear before a panel which will examine his links with a bogus solicitor on the run from the police.

Coun Shurmer has already admitted he was duped by the fugitive Anthony Burton whose name he helped to put forward to the council's traffic management review board for legal consultancy work.

But he claims the panel would be nothing more than a kangaroo court out to discredit him.

But no matter how strong are his suspicions on this score, he is unwise to refuse to answer to his investigators.

For what will discredit him will be the impression his refusal inevitably conveys - that he has something to hide.

If he has not, let him face and confound his critics in an open arena.

Better still, if he does not trust this panel, which is composed of members of both the parties with which he has been at odds, let him resign and stand again and see if the public is also as sure of his integrity.

After all, he came to power impugning the integrity of others and this standards panel has been instituted to monitor just the sort of things he has been complaining about.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.