TWO reforms which would shake up the way decisions are made and scrutinised at Cheshire East Council have been blocked by Conservative councillors.

The nine members of the ruling party who sat on CEC’s constitution committee on Thursday voted against plans to consider replacing the current leader and cabinet system with the committee system.

And the same Conservative councillors also voted against allowing members of the opposition to take on chairmanship or vice-chairmanship of CEC’s overview and scrutiny committees.

Cllr James Nicholas, Bollington First member, submitted a motion calling for a cross-party working group to explore the pros and cons of replacing the leader and cabinet system.

He said: “Since [2011] two local MPs and numerous groups of residents have called for special measures [at CEC], and some councillors want to see meaningful change.

“Surely this is an indication of how the current system of governance has proved to be flawed.”

In the committee system, councils elect a leader with executive power and decisions are taken by committees that are made up of members in proportion to the number of councillors each party has.

It was previously used by councils until the Government scrapped the system in 2000, and it was brought back as a governance option for councils by the coalition Government in 2011.

Cllr Arthur Moran, independent member for Nantwich, urged the committee to ditch the current system of ‘patronage’.

He said: “What we have at the moment is a strong leader and cabinet model. Of all the systems this is the worst.

“We need all elected councillors of whatever group involved in the decision-making of this council, and not just the privileged few.”

Cllr Gordon Baxendale, Conservative member for Congleton West, praised the cabinet system and suggested that before 2000 decisions were made ‘behind closed doors’ and nodded through by council.

He added: “The system that we’ve got at the moment is progressive, it’s forward-looking, and I believe that it is fully workable.”

Cllr Joy Bratherton, Labour member for Crewe East, told the committee that other councils that have recently taken on the committee system have built on the best of both models – and she made a rallying cry for the committee to embrace change.

She said: “Why is it that some of you here are not prepared to be open-minded enough to realise that the committee structure and the governance of this council is also a living item, and can change?

“Come on, let’s forget the party dogma, let’s forget what we are doing at the moment as being the only way it can be done, let’s be open minded and agree to setting up this working party so that we can have a look at it.

“We might be proved wrong, we may be proved very, very right.”

But Cllr Paul Findlow, cabinet member for corporate policy and legal services, insisted the timing to consider making a change was wrong ahead of next May’s election – and Conservative members backed Cllr Peter Groves’ proposal to reject the move.

The Conservatives also voted to continue the council’s current policy of appointing chairmen on scrutiny committees, rather than introducing a requirement that opposition members hold the position.

Cllr Sam Corcoran, leader of the Labour opposition group, said: “Scrutiny committees should provide challenge to the cabinet.

“Who is likely to provide the best challenge? Is it members of the same political group or members of the opposition parties?”

Both changes were rejected by nine votes to five.