PEOPLE power is on its way to the borough - eventually.

This week councillors opted for a wait-and-see policy on their plans to introduce area committees aimed at bringing grass roots democracy to the town hall's decision-making process.

After detailed consideration this week of the public's response to the proposals - and bearing in mind the council's budget problems - they decided for an option entitled "consolidate, consider and move forward".

This will mean working to strengthen existing community links the council is already involved in, such as forums and partnerships.

A new democracy working party, set up this week, will consider the impact of forthcoming legislation, and take a deeper look into methods of achieving more local democracy. These would be included in a new democracy plan to be introduced in 1999.

Only a week earlier, the council's policy and resources committee decided to hold back on the area committee plans because of financial restraints.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.