A CUT in the number of council scrutiny meetings is a threat to local democracy, opposition councillors warned this week.

Members voted at Tuesday's borough council meeting to slash the number of scrutiny meetings by a third, from 46 a year to just 30.

Conservative councillors opposed the move, claiming scrutiny panels played a vital role in holding the ruling party to account.

Scrutiny panels are made up of opposition councillors alongside members of the ruling party and, in some cases, public members.

As well as working to review and help develop policy, they have the power to 'call in' decisions made by the cabinet, thus holding the ruling party to account.

Under the new arrangements, there will still be five scrutiny panels but they will each meet every two months rather than up to 11 times a year as at present.

Conservative councillor John Todd, who voted against the changes, claimed they would make the ruling Labour party less accountable.

"Overview and scrutiny allows the opposition to play a key, constructive role in policy development," he said. "Cabinet meetings remind me of a social club where there's no challenge to anything that's said. It's not a democratic process and that's why proper scrutiny is so important."

Opposition leader Peter Thompson said: "We're all for streamlining but when times are tough you need an effective voice for the vast majority of us (councillors) who are not in the cabinet. Maybe this is going a little too far."

Labour councillor Sohan Sangha, who proposed the changes, said much of the work by scrutiny panels was done outside of meetings and they would continue to play a major role.

He added that staffing for the scrutiny panels had already been cut and it was necessary to reduce the workload of the remaining officers.

Deputy council leader Colin Ellar admitted making the cuts was a 'difficult call' but insisted it was necessary due to 'budget constraints'.

"I don't think there's any intention to lessen the role of scrutiny, but we have to work with the means we have," he added.