THE Government yesterday gave in to massive public pressure and scrapped plans to let local councillors make vital decisions entirely behind closed doors.

In a shock U-turn, ministers are now insisting that new-style council cabinets must meet in public when making "key" decisions for their local communities.

The climbdown comes after months of protests from campaigners across the North-East and backbench MPs, and The Northern Echo's Council Watch campaign against local government secrecy.

And last night, Local Government Minister Hilary Armstrong effectively admitted the Government had changed its mind. The Durham North-West MP said: "On the one hand, we're accused of not taking public consultation seriously.

"On the other, we are accused of a U-turn. I much prefer taking the brickbats for taking public consultation seriously."

The concession comes only days before the Government's Local Government Bill comes back for a full debate in the House of Commons. The radical proposals pave the way for councils to switch to new ways of making decisions, including directly-elected mayors and executive cabinets watched over by scrutiny committees.

But the Bill sparked outrage by allowing each local authority to decide if its cabinet should meet in public.

That was followed by councils setting up experimental cabinets, including Durham county and Darlington borough, where the new executives are made up entirely of Labour members and meet in private.

Ms Armstrong tried to focus attention on the Bill's new requirements for town halls to publish information and to have scrutiny committees.

But yesterday, she tabled an amendment to the Bill allowing the Government to specify circumstances when meetings must be open to the public. Ms Armstrong later confirmed cabinet meetings would have to be open when "key" decisions were taken.

Those are defined as decisions having "a material effect beyond the internal workings of the authority or a significant effect on the authority". Other areas include if there was "significant expenditure being incurred or savings made".

But the vagueness of the definitions may lead to claims that the Government is still leaving town halls too much leeway.

Ms Armstrong last night confirmed she had always personally preferred that council cabinets met in public where possible.

John Williams, Labour leader of Darlington council, said the authority would take "due note" of any proposed changes and added: "We have always wanted to be as open as possible." But he said Darlington's current cabinet meeting in private would not change before the end of its three-month experimental period, which began a few weeks ago.

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