LABOUR and Lib Dem cried victory in South Gloucestershire last week when they united to scrap the ruling cabinet and successfully reinstated the old-style committees.

Both parties had been campaigning to switch back to the more "transparent" committees model and redistribute executive power among all 70 councillors instead of leaving seven members in charge of making all key decisions.

At a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, March 21, they outvoted the Tories, 36 to 34.

Labour leader Cllr Andy Perkins (Woodstock) had urged members to agree to a return to the committees, which had been disbanded by Tony Blair’s government but were recently resuscitated as part of the Localism Bill.

He said at the meeting held at Kingswood Civic Centre: "Over the past couple of years I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with the way the cabinet is working.

"The majority of decisions are made by a small group of people and I don’t think standing by and watching is why we were elected. We need a system in which the views of all councillors are considered."

Labour claimed that under the cabinet system, backbench councillors were unable to overturn decisions made by executive members, Yet, the Tories strongly opposed the motion claiming that it would be jumping the gun.

They insisted that such a major governance decision should not be rushed and that the public should be given a say about the change through consultation.

Cllr Matthew Riddle (Con, Severn), who proposed to postpone the decision and reconvene after a three-month consultation period, said: "There is nothing more important than how this council is run. I want to be able to look my residents in the eye and say that I asked them for their opinion."

Consultation aside, some Tories said they were not ready to see the current system go. Several spoke up to point out that the committee model would slow the decision-making process down significantly.

Cllr Brian Allinson (Con, Stoke Gifford), who sits on the cabinet as executive member for planning, transportation and strategic environment said the change would be a "recipe for disaster."

He said: "Do we really want to see this four-star council reduced to a weak lump of what it was? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it." Cllr Perkins said after the meeting: "This is a great decision for democracy and transparency in South Gloucestershire. Now all 70 councillors will have a stake in making decisions. The decisions will be made at meetings in public, and as we are a hung council there will probably be a fair amount of debate beforehand, which has been entirely lacking here."

The change will be officially implemented at South Gloucestershire Council’s AGM on May 23.