PETERSFIELD Town Council is to re-examine the way it elects chairmen and selects committees after complaints from a new councillor.
Brian Dutton is a new face around the table in the Petersfield Town Council chamber. He arrived on a Tory ticket after the May local government elections .
He is furious that talks took place before the first meeting of the new council to discuss committees and chairmanships between councillors he described as "the magic circle."
At no point, he said, was he contacted, or Vaughan Clarke or Bob Ayer, the other new Tory councillors.
Chris Jenner told him it was open to any councillor to ring any other councillor.
And Elsa Bulmer pointed out that if Mr Dutton had been keen to become involved on the budget side – as he told councillors on Thursday night – he should let it be known that he wished to serve on the finance and general purposes committee.
But Mr Dutton said the matter should have been dealt with around the table, giving councillors the chance to vote.
George Watkinson, chairman of the finance and general purposes committee, said he would look at the council's standing orders and bring back ideas to the committee for new guidelines on selecting committees and chairmen.
Last month Mr Dutton likened the incoming mayor, John Crowhurst, to "Moses and his tablets of stone" and complained of "behind-the-scenes manoeuvring" by Liberal Democrats on the town council. He accused them of using a system of proportional representation in setting up committees following May's elections.