AN overhaul of the standards regime could lead to an “absolutely horrific” situation in which the responsibility for checking councillors falls solely to other councillors.

Fears that members of the public could be elbowed out of the new standards regime, leaving councillors in a far stronger position, were expressed at a meeting of the Standards Committee. Council- lors and independent lay members alike criticised the Government’s ruling that, in the future, only councillors will be able to act as chair and vice-chair of Standards Committees. Independent members of the public can still serve on committees but will not be able to vote.

Cllr Roger West said the public would not stand for “councillors checking councillors” and Cllr Ron Whittaker called it “a major step backwards.”

Chair Roy Wardle, himself an independent member of the public, said: “We are going to have to look at ways of how we can develop the roles of independent people within the statutory framework that we have.”

The committee also started work on creating a new standards regime for Bournemouth, despite the possibility that this puts them on a collision course with council leader Peter Charon, who has previously insisted that he should take charge of the project.

Cllr Charon favours a regime whereby complaints about councillors are referred to political groups in the first instance but this idea was labelled unworkable by Standards Committee members.

They agreed to recommend a system whereby a mix of members of the public and councillors consider complaints, but under a much simpler, quicker system than currently exists.

The person being complained about would receive full details of the allegation and be able to respond. One independent person would then decide whether there was a breach of the code of conduct and what action should be taken. These ideas are likely to go before councillors at a series of workshops.