Coun Colby was officially accepted into the Tory group at a meeting on Tuesday night and will sit on their side of the chamber for the meeting.

She said: "I am down to ask a question at full council.
"I have been told I am going to be heckled and jeered.

"If Labour do heckle me they are very childish."

Disruptive

Coun Colby quit Labour last month after 12 months of thought, saying she didn't like the way the group worked.

Labour said it was on the point of withdrawing the whip because of her "disruptive behaviour".

After her resignation she was undecided about her future before deciding to cross the chamber.

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She said: "Now I have made my mind up I know I can just get on with things.

"I feel a lot happier.

"I have not had one person who has come to me and had a go at me. I have had people saying 'You have had a good reason to do it and I will
support you'.

"I have worked well with the Conservatives this last 12 months.

"It isn't going to be like I am changing – I have had little to do with Labour for the past 12 months."

Leader of the council, Coun Russell Forsyth said: "We are please to have Marlene aboard.

"She is a very experienced councillor.

"She has been a good ward councillor and I am sure she will continue
that.

"I have managed to secure her place on the planning committee where she has worked very hard over a number of years.

"I hope everyone accepts her decision."
Labour group leader Clive Grunshaw said: "Marlene has made her decision and there is nothing we can do about that.

"We won't be heckling her in any different way to how we would treat anybody else.

"We will be there to debate issues and not be side-tracked by what Marlene has done."

Debate

The move completes a major turnaround for Coun Colby, who was re-elected in her Rossall ward as a Labour candidate little more than a year ago.

She has found herself in conflict with her new colleagues in the past – not least over the ruling party's decision to allow an Asda development instead of a Morrisons store in Fleetwood, as well as a council restructure which saw the departure of then chief executive Michael Brown.

She said back in 2002: "It's just one big blunder after another."