A POLITICAL row has broken out after Darlington's Liberal Democrat group was denied seats on two influential committees.

At last week's meeting of Darlington Borough Council, a recommendation was put forward to give Liberal Democrat councillors Ken and Susan Walker places on the environment scrutiny committee and social affairs and health scrutiny committee.

The proposal formed part of an agenda item reviewing the democratic structure of the council. To succeed, the proposal required no councillors voted against it.

Some Conservative councillors voted against the cabinet-style form of local government, which was the main element of agenda item. As a result, this meant they had also inadvertently voted against Liberal Democrat representation on the scrutiny committees.

Conservative group leader Tony Richmond admitted some of his councillors made a mistake and did not mean to prevent the Liberal Democrats from gaining places on the committees.

But the Conservative group has being criticised by opposition councillors.

Councillor Ken Walker, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: "The root of the problem is that the Conservative group has totally disregarded the changes which have been made and don't understand the procedures. As a result, we have lost out on the opportunity of representing the people who elected us, and this is totally undemocratic."

Council and Labour group leader, John Williams, said: "I think this raises serious questions about the leadership skills of the Conservative group, and it is a great shame that the Liberal Democrats are the losers."

Coun Richmond said that members of the Conservative group did not deliberately vote against the Liberal Democrats, but were merely registering their protest against the Cabinet system