Councillors and meetings face axe to help save £1m

Selby Council, one of just 37 councils left in the country with an old committee structure, has announced it hopes to push through plans to change to the more streamlined cabinet system.

The changes also propose cutting 10 councillors and calling in the Electoral Commission to redraw the boundaries of the district into 31 single member wards.

Leader of the Conservative-run council Coun Mark Crane said he hopes the new system would improve efficiency and help deal with an expected 1m budget deficit next year.

He said: "We have been assessing this whole situation for a number of years and are looking to bring it in after elections in May 2011.

"This system will allow us to react much more swiftly. We have got a balanced budget this year but over the next year we will have to reduce costs by 1m and we are anticipating further cuts in government grants.

"This streamlining process will save money but the most important thing is that we have a modern council ready for the 21st century and we don't think the current system gives us that."

The committee system where councillors sit on planning, environment, social and equality committees, and decisions are made by full council, has been heavily criticised for being old-fashioned and slow.

But the proposed switch to the cabinet system – where a council leader and a number of executive councillors become the powerhouse of the council's decision-making process – has not proved universally popular.

John Burgess McCartney, an independent councillor on the district council as well as North Yorkshire County Council, said: "It will be more expensive with more meetings and less democracy.

"It will give power to just a handful of people. Councils don't need quicker decisions, they need good decisions and just because they do it more quickly it doesn't make it better."

Selby Council says the public will be extensively consulted on the proposed changes.