AN investigation into a controversial £20,000 donation by the owners of Colne’s Boundary Mill to Pendle Conservatives has cleared six councillors.

Labour had complained that the gift from Richard Bannister and Libra Textiles, which runs the shopping complex, to MP Andrew Stephenson was used to benefit Tory councillors in the borough.

Coun Mohammed Iqbal, Labour leader said that elected members ‘have a duty to demonstrate beyond any level of doubt that any large donors to political parties cannot secure votes for controversial planning applications such as this one’.

The complaint arose when proposals were debated to build a new garden centre and cafe on land off Whitewalls Drive, Colne, which were approved by the town’s area committee last April.

But the borough council’s deputy chief executive and monitoring officer Phillip Mousdale has now concluded, after an inquiry, that the Conservative councillors named - leader Joe Cooney, Neil Butterworth, John McBeth, Margaret Foxley, Graham Waugh and Paul White, have not acted improperly.

Mr Mousdale said he had interviewed Mr Stephenson, who insisted that the donation had been solicited from Mr Bannister in May 2013 and was solely for his re-election campaign.

He said that the cheque was placed in the association’s account and he informed Pendle Conservative Association chairman David Brown what the purpose of the money was.

The donation was used to pay for his ‘Pendle Matters’ newsletter, a crime survey and annual reports.

Mr Stephenson said he would have rebutted the claims at the time but he was recovering from a widely-reported serious illness at the time.

Coun White, as group whip, said on behalf of the other five that the donation had no relevance to them and they did not feel they had an interest to declare.

Before the April meeting Coun White declared an interest as Mr Stephenson’s campaign manager and did not vote on the matter.

In the conclusion of his report, Mr Mousdale said: “I do not consider that it can be said that the councillors were not acting in the public interest in voting in favour of planning permission.

“This was a major application with potential large benefits for Colne and Pendle. It was recommended for approval by the planning manager.

“There is no evidence that any of the Councillors, their family or anyone close to them gained any advantage or benefits.”