The Council, with Chairman Barry Hodgson, had convened on Monday 20th January, to ratify next year's budget and had been discussing income into the Council.
Before moving on to expenditure, Councillor Craig McBeth raised a point of order, and asked if it was correct that the meeting had been closed to the public.
Under the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014,
"All meetings of these councils must be open to the public, except in limited defined circumstances. These councils can only decide, by resolution, to meet in private when discussing confidential business or for other special reasons where publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest."
According to Cllr McBeth, the Clerk, Adele Waddington, said that she had checked on the issue earlier in the day and was sure that it was OK to close the meeting.
Cllr McBeth then says; "The Chairman then said that they had 'pre-empted' me asking that question. And I asked what he meant. He went on to say, 'Even a piece of shit has friends - the flies.' And then he started calling me a 'provocateur'."
Cllr McBeth claims to have asked the Clerk to minute the Chairman's comments too. "He smirked and said to me, 'there are no minutes, it's a closed meeting.'"
"I am also not aware of any resolution made by the Council that agreed to closing this meeting to the public. If this is the case, it represents a serious breach of the law and transparency amongst the Council and it's representatives."
A formal complaint has now been lodged to Pendle Borough Council Monitoring Officer, Philip Mousdale.
Following the meeting, Trawden Parish Council clerk, admitted the information she had received was out of date and that the Point of Order raised was in fact a valid one.
