THE new leaders at Stroud District Council have scrapped the cabinet system.

Council leader Cllr Geoff Wheeler announced, at the authority’s reconvened AGM last Thursday, May 24, the council would be returning to the committee system.

He said the council would be abandoning the cabinet system that had been in place at Ebley Mill for the last 11 years in favour of cross-party committees to decide on policy issues such as housing, community services and finance.

The cabinet system gave individual councillors responsibility for specific services.

Local councils were given the chance to re-adopt committees as part of the Localism Act 2011 introduced by the coalition government.

Last week neighbouring authority South Gloucestershire Council became the first in the country to revert to committee system.

In a statement Cllr Weaver said: "Having committees that all councillors can play a part in will greatly increase the involvement and contributions they can make.

"It will also be an easier system to manage now that the council is ‘hung’ with no party having overall control of the council."

Councillors adjourned the AGM the week before, May 17, after Labour announced it had formed a ‘rainbow alliance’ with the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, who collectively outvoted the Conservative Group to take control of the council.

Cllr Wheeler said it will take a few months to move to the new committee system and in the meantime the cabinet would be replaced by an executive of eight members who would each work with an advisory panel of councillors during the period of transition.

He added the move was ‘cost neutral’ because the special responsibility allowances for the policy leaders would be reduced by about 12 per cent.

At the AGM last week Cllr Wheeler announced who the new policy leaders would be for the eight portfolio areas. Appointments included Cam West’s Cllr Dennis Andrewartha for planning, and Wotton’s Cllr June Cordwell will head up community services.

Also at the AGM the ‘rainbow alliance’ announced a change in the timings of the development control committee meetings, which decide planning applications. These meetings will now be held in the evenings from 6pm rather than the traditional 10am slot, which councillors believed prevented members of the public and councillors from attending.