A ROW has followed a two-man walk-out at a council meeting after councillors claimed the authority was undemocratic.

Independent leader Steve Kay and Liberal Democrat Glyn Nightingale walked out of a Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council scrutiny committee on Wednesday.

The pair say they were told by a senior member of the council not to scrutinise the executive committee.

They also say the executive committee and leading officers were making decisions which should be made by the whole council.

In a letter to chief executive Colin Moore, Councillor Nightingale accused assistant chief executive Richard Frankland of "stating that it is not a role of a scrutiny committee to scrutinise the executive."

Coun Nightingale also said: "I am tired of hearing councillors denigrated for 'second-guessing the executive,' whatever that means, being patronised and being accused of being uninformed, not understanding the new procedures and, basically, not doing their job properly."

Mr Frankland hit back at the accusation that he said the committee should not scrutinise the executive.

He said: "I never said that at all. What I did say was that scrutinising the executive is only part of their job. Council effectiveness is much broader than that.

Councillors have the chance to set their own agenda and shouldn't get hung up on just scrutinising the executive."