A LABOUR York councillor has criticised opposition members for ditching a cross party agreement on the chairs of City of York Council's various committees.

Cllr Ruth Potter said the issue was under consideration as part of the authority's Audit and Governance review of its constitution before a sudden u-turn from opposition councillors.

She said: “After unanimous support for the idea of remaining with the status quo, with councillors from different parties taking up scrutiny chairs based on their proportion of councillors, this agreement has been quickly shelved only a matter of weeks after it was discussed.

“The discussion was straight forward and resulted in cross party agreement with little debate. It now appears the principles of those involved have gone the same way as the agreement following the behind closed doors deal of local Tories, Lib Dems and others."