Tories and Labour attack Reform UK over motion

REFORM councillors in Northumberland clashed bitterly with members of rival parties as they attempted to stall a constitutional review.

- JAMES ROBINSON Local Democracy Reporter

The party, which is now the official opposition on Northumberland County Council, submitted a motion calling for proposed changes to be paused until September to allow for further scrutiny.

The changes, put forward by the Tory-led administration, would see the existing five local area planning committees replaced with three covering larger areas.

In addition, local area committees themselves will be replaced with community partnership meetings, with local stakeholders including the police, NHS and town and parish councils invited to attend.

Finally, the council’s standards committee would be merged with the audit committee.

The changes will save the council money by not having to pay larger allowances to more committee chairs and vice-chairs, as well as reducing the number of training sessions for councillors to understand the planning system.

The proposals were agreed by a cross-party working group of councillors which included members from Reform who had been working on the new proposals since May and were approved by 39 votes to 19 at Wednesday's meeting of the county council.

However, the Reform motion debated immediately afterwards expressed unhappiness with the plans.