A ROW is erupting in Eston Town Hall over the future direction of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

The council has introduced a new structure as part of Government legislation to modernise local government and currently operates under a leader and cabinet system run by the ruling Labour party.

As part of a consultation exercise, 60,000 households across the borough are to be asked about the future direction of the council. But both the consultation and the changes have created an outcry among opposition councillors.

Steve Kay, leader of the East Cleveland Independent Group, said the council wanted to keep its present arrangements.

"The council is just going through the motions to fulfil its statutory obligations," he said.

"It is inevitable that, at the end of a long and expensive so-called consultation exercise, we shall end up with the ratification of the existing experimental leader and cabinet system."

Barbara Harpham, leader of the Conservative Party, said opposition councillors felt left out of the decision making process.

David Walsh, leader of the council, said: "It is a statutory consultation and we are doing what every other council is doing."