JOHN Eddleston, David Rogers and others are way off the mark when criticising the Labour councillors of Blackburn with Darwen regarding the new political structures (Letters, April 4).

For example, Mr Rogers states that a "small cabal of councillors" will hold "secret meetings with members of the opposition, the public and the press being barred."

This description, in fact, outlines the current situation where all the main decisions are taken by a relatively-small number of councillors of the ruling group in private before the relevant committee meeting.

Other major decisions are often taken by all of the councillors of the ruling group meeting in private before the relevant council meeting.

This situation is not unique to Blackburn with Darwen Council but is standard practice in the vast majority of local councils whether controlled by the Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem parties.

Mr Eddleston states that "the press is a safeguard for both the council and the electorate."

The press can only report what has been said at the meeting and if the council is not satisfied they can refute the report.

I fully agree with this. However, currently the press does not attend (and neither does the public) 95 per cent of the council's committee meetings. The press and public are totally disinterested in the current committee system -- with only the planning/highways committee and full council meetings attracting the press and public.

Indeed, even after the changes, the planning committee, because of its quasi-judicial nature, will remain in place as at present.

Mr Eddleston and Mr Rogers both criticise the 'cabinet model' -- yet 95 per cent of councils will be changing to this model.

The Government has ruled out the 'no change' option, so critics of the cabinet model presumably wish to see an 'elected mayor' or 'council manager' system of decision-making -- where power is concentrated in a single person's hands, which seems to be a far less democratic way of doing things.

Do Mr Eddleston and Mr Rogers want the chaos and farce of the London mayoral election here in East Lancashire?

Finally, I agree with Mr Eddleston that "democracy thrives on intelligent and reasoned argument in open forum." Because of the increased scrutiny function for councillors and the enhanced community role this is exactly what the new system aims to achieve.

It is up to all councillors of all political parties to ensure that the new system proves better than the one it will replace.

COUN DAVID SMITH (Sunnyhurst Ward), Avondale Road, Darwen.

Footnote: Although I would disagree with the figure of 95 per cent, Coun Smith is correct in saying that reporters do not attend some of the multitude of committees and sub committees.

But this is only after we have been able to scrutinise the agendas in advance to see what is to be discussed -- often something that has already been talked through by another committee.

The point about the planned new secret cabinet meetings is that they will be an official part of the structure, unlike unrecognised group meetings whose decisions have no legal weight and do not qualify for payment of allowances.

It also appears that newspapers will receive no agendas for the private meetings and will be reliant on the Labour party and council public relations staff for information on what was discussed and what decisions were reached in the public's name -- Editor

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