A COUNCIL will streamline its committee system from next year in order to improve its service to local residents.

Following an extensive public consultation in which every household in the area had a chance to express their views, Ribble Valley Borough Council decided to opt for a new structure, geared to the needs of smaller authorities.

The new system will see the numbers on each committee almost halved.

Under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2000, the council had to choose one of four options, including to streamline its existing committees.

The rejected options were: to adopt a directly elected mayor with a cabinet; to elect a council leader with a cabinet; to endorse a directly-adopted mayor and council manager.

A council spokesman said: "We considered that the options involving a directly-elected mayor were more suited to big cities. Those involving a cabinet were also not as appropriate in an area like the Ribble Valley, with its mix of towns and villages, where important offices such as education and social services were provided by the county."

Over 71 per cent of households who returned their consultation papers were in favour of streamlining the existing committees. Under this option, the council will retain its five policy-making committees, but the number of councillors on each committee will be drastically reduced.

Membership on the community and planning and development committees will drop from 22 to 12, on the housing committee from 15 to 10, on the personnel committee from nine to six and on the policy and finance committee from 19 to 12. In addition, there will be two overview and scrutiny committees each with 12 members.

The council spokesperson explained: "The job of the overview and scrutiny committees will be to scrutinise decisions made by the policy-making committees and to consider in detail policy issues and make recommendations on those issues to the policy-making committees."

All committees will continue to meet on a eight-weekly cycle, except for the planning and development committee, which will meet monthly.

Public participation will also continue to be encouraged at all meetings, including the full council meeting, the next of which takes place on Tuesday at 6pm.

The spokesperson said: "There will continue to be a mayor of the Ribble Valley chosen by councillors, and a council leader chosen by the majority political party."

The government has raised no objections to the proposals which will be implemented on a trial basis from January 1, 2002, with full implementation from May 14.