George Burgess was a colleague of Deirdre Barlow's on the council in 1989. George shared Deirdre's views about the stupidity of the committees, and approved when the Weatherfield Recorder published a story that the council had snubbed Prince Charles to open an abattoir after Deirdre mentioned it to Ken, not expecting anything to come of it. The following month, when suspicion fell on Deirdre again due to another leak, Deirdre informed Chief Executive Peter Reynolds that the real mole was council secretary Wendy Crozier, who was then sacked for gross misconduct.