BASILDON councillors have voted to revert to the leadership and cabinet form of governance within the authority, only four years after rejecting it.

The council plans to adopt the system on May 26 next year, the earliest date possible without holding a referendum.

At present the council has a system whereby decisions can be made directly at committee meetings where there has been debate on issues in hand. Under the new system, committees will not have decision-making powers, only the opportunity to comment.

Real power will lie within the hands of the council's politically designated cabinet.

It means a majority of councillors could actually oppose a piece of legislation at full council, for example, but the cabinet could choose to ignore that decision.

A most notable and controversial example of that came in neighbouring Thurrock, which also operates a leadership and cabinet system and where a majority of the 49 councillors, including members of the then minority Conservative group, voted against building the council's new multi-million pound offices - but the cabinet chose to ignore that democratic decision and ploughed ahead with the controversial scheme.

Conservative council leader Cllr Andrew Baggott said the committee system form of governance currently used by the council slows down decision making and stops councillors from adequately serving residents.

He said: "You can't sneeze without having to go to a committee.

"It doesn't allow us to get things done, it doesn't allow us to get things done speedily and it's certainly not in keeping with this administration's desire to actually move forward, move quickly and get things delivered for residents."

Speaking against the motion, Independent Group leader Kerry Smith described the cabinet model as "reminiscent of North Korea".

He said: "That's the first battle line for next May's local elections that residents will have to decide on, back to the bad old days when a cabal of politicians would sit there in a room with almost no public attendance."

At an extraordinary council meeting held on May 25, 2017 the council resolved to cease operating the leader and cabinet form of governance and start to operate a committee system . It cannot change its form of governance again for five years, unless approved in a referendum.

Referring to the 2017 debate, Conservative Cllr Andrew Shrader said: "I had no experience of the old system but my worry then was that it seemed to me cumbersome.

"I've had four years' experience of it now and it met all my low expectations and exceeded them in its uselessness."

Basildon Labour group leader Jack Ferguson responded by saying the committee system increased opportunities for the opposition to put across their points of view, and his Conversavite colleagues benefited from this before they regained control of the council earlier this year.

He said: "I have seen it leading to politicians being able to work together to put aside party interests to work in the interests of the whole borough."

However, Conservative Cllr Anthony Hedley, provoked uproar when he described the committee system as "disabled and may I say moribund," causing Mayor David Dadds to intervene to regain control of the debate.

Councillors voted 24 in favour to 14 against, meaning chief executive Scott Logan will be asked to progress matters so a formal resolution can be drawn up by next May.