Burnley's BNP councillors to control litter bins and bouncers

The British National Party's three new Burnley councillors found themselves severely marginalised last night as they were given powers no greater than litter policy control and licensing of pub bouncers.

At their first council meeting at Burnley town hall, the three were given seats on 12 of the committees that scrutinise the decisions of the municipal cabinet, but these did not include the seat they had hoped for on the regeneration committee: their most successful election candidate, David Edwards, was dumped from its membership by the ruling Labour group on Wednesday.

A late reshuffle of committee membership, which the ruling Labour group in effect controls, left Mr Edwards uncertain as to how his party's manifesto could translate into practice.

Of his role on the social leisure and welfare committee, he said: "I've only read up on this quickly. I'm not 100 per cent about what it means – I'd say it's health, litter bins and hygiene."

Mr Edwards will also sit on the door supervisors appeals committee and the community safety and environment overview committee. Asked how he could shape policy in these areas, he said: "That's a good one. We've not gone that deeply into it. It depends what the British National Party want to start standing for."

The confusion of the BNP three, who sat apart from other members on a bench in the council chamber, stretched to the issue of precisely who leads their small political group. Carole Hughes, a 44-year-old car factory supervisor, insisted that it was Terence Grogan, a 43-year-old production manager and a former paratrooper.

Mr Edwards, however, whose second place in the polls earns him two years on the council, twice as long as the others, seemed to think he was in charge.

Mr Edwards, a 40-year-old freelance surveyor, is clearly already drowning in the tedious minutiae of council life. "I've got work to do and a family to look after. It's like being at university, you have to pick it all up as you go along," he said. "My work's suffered slightly but that's life."

The new members, for whom Anti-Nazi League protesters were waiting at the town hall's front and back doors, earned an abrasive welcome from the councillor Stuart Caddy, unanimously elected leader of the council for a fifth term last night.

"Ten thousand people [BNP voters] voiced concerns in the local elections. We need to go out there and listen to them," he said.

Though two armoured police vans had been on hand for the BNP's arrival, its new councillors left without ceremony in a three-car motorcade comprising a black Cadillac, a white Nissan Micra and a metallic grey Austin Maestro.