'Delay town hall changes'

The Conservative group will officially make its plea at a forthcoming meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council's policy and resources committee.

Labour leaders have indicated their preferred option for re-organisation would see several council committees bite the dust with their responsibilities devolved to an individual councillor with a government minister-style portfolio.

The Government has told councils all over the country they must reform and has suggested elected mayors as well as cabinets as a possible alternative.

A consultation exercise is currently being undertaken into the situation by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Liberal Democrats in the borough have already said they would want to see area committees based on six sections of the borough introduced, to try and bring democracy closer to grass roots and make sure too much power is not concentrated in the cabinet. But the Tories are calling for the whole process to be delayed while the debate both locally and nationally carries on.

The Tories drew up a motion which was set to be put before a full meeting of the council. But it has now been transferred to the authority's policy and resources committee.

The motion will read: "The Government's draft local government bill proposes radical changes to the procedures of administering local government with implications for a serious diminution in democracy.

"Although consultations are said to be taking place with external organisations about possible variations to the proposed political models, the status quo has been excluded.

"Consequently, because a lot of amendments to the draft bill are expected the Conservative group calls on this council to delay the introduction of any changes to the present system until such time as the bill has completed its passage through both Houses of Parliament."

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