A DARRENER who has attended almost all the town council’s meetings since it was established, has decided to try for a ‘comfortable seat’ at the next elections.

Ex-farmer David Horsfield said he will put himself forward as an independent candidate for the next town council elections.

It would see the Grafton Court resident, if he stood in his local Sunnyhurst ward, trying to oust one of Labour incumbents David Smith, Brian Taylor or Pete Hollings.

Mr Horsfield said: “I am virtually the only person who attends nearly all the town council meetings. I have been to more meetings than most of the members, so I might as well try to get a comfortable seat!”

Mr Horsfield said the final straw came when he was ‘laughed at’ during this month’s meeting when he was trying to make a point about leaves being blown by borough council workers into the paddling pool in Sunnyhurst Wood.

He said: “Council members shouted me down and told me it was nothing to do with them.

“And yet they have happily thrown £12,000 at improving the place, not that it has done much good.”

Mr Horsfield regularly speaks out at the end of council meetings when the public are invited to speak.

He said: “The council is supposed to be welcoming and ready to listen. But if they don’t like what they are hearing, some of them just shout or laugh.”

Mr Horsfield said he hoped other like-minded townsfolk would consider challenging for a town council seat.

He said: “It is time we had a town council that can stand up to Blackburn.

“That was the original idea and that is what sold it to voters. It is time we did something about it.”