THE DEPUTY Council leader accused a Labour colleague of a "miscarriage of justice" at a planning meeting yesterday.

Councillor Imran Hussain (Lab, Toller), who had been sitting in the public gallery waiting for another application to come up, spoke out after the panel said it would not allow an applicant to address them.

The panel was considering an application for a new private hire booking office at Low Moor Business Park in Common Road, Bradford.

It had refused an apparently identical plan in September, and panel member Councillor Michelle Swallow (Lab, Clayton and Fairweather Green) said she would like to hear from the applicant about what the differences were.

Taj Salam, the spokesman for applicant Arfan Younis, said he was happy to address the panel.

But panel chairman Councillor Shabir Hussain (Lab, Manningham) refused, saying he had not put his name on a list of people wanting to speak at the beginning of the meeting.

Cllr Imran Hussain then got up, saying: "Point of order."

Cllr Shabir Hussain said: "Councillor Imran Hussain, can you sit down?"

Cllr Imran Hussain said: "You have to allow me to make a point of order. Not to hear them speak is just not in the interests of justice."

He said he was "nothing to do with this application" but had felt compelled to say something.

He said: "Not to allow the applicant to speak is a miscarriage of justice, chair. I want that to be noted."

Panel member Councillor Imran Khan  (Lab, Bowling and Barkerend) said the applicants had turned up late.

He said: "It is an official meeting. People know the time of the meeting and if you want to speak, you turn up on time and give your name to the secretariat.

"If the chair wants to allow you to speak, then you can. If not, then tough, quite frankly."

In the end, the chairman allowed Mr Salam to talk, but the panel refused the application, saying the 24-hour taxi office would compromise the security of the site, which is locked and gated at night.

The meeting heard that the new private hire office would create 23 full-time and two part-time jobs.

But ward councillor David Warburton (Lab, Wyke), who was there to object to the plan, said he doubted that any new jobs would be created.

He said: "The district already has thousands of licensed drivers."

And he added that the Telegraph & Argus had recently highlighted the problem of "an influx of licensed drivers" who were getting their licenses from outside the district.

The panel heard that Mr Younis had already lodged an appeal against the previous refusal, which was now with Government planning inspectors to decide on.

After the meeting, Mr Younis said the whole thing had been "a farce".