Ashford's "boring" State of the Borough debate will continue, but in a different format.

Executive committee councillors agreed to keep the key annual debate going but agree to a different style to encourage public interest at their meeting on Thursday night.

Earlier Ashford Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny committee had called for its abolition because it thought it was "boring" and didn’t attract enough public interest.

Cllr Peter Davison (Ash Ind) said State of the Borough had poor public attendance and ended up being confrontational between opposing councillors.

He said: "The debate in the past has been unsatisfactory."

Cllr Robert Davidson (Lib Dem) said: "We are not communicating with the public in the way we should in order to get a response from them."

Cllr Rita Hawes (Lib Dem) said: "As a debate it fails. It is stultified by who can speak and for how long."

Cllr Michael Claughton (Con), portfolio holder for communications. said: "I accept the need for reform and change.

"But as for the word boring not every issue in these portals can set pulses racing."

He stressed that State of the Borough debate should be kept as it both benefited the public and allowed opposition councillors to air their views.

Deputy leader Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con) said: "We should look at changing the format. But it is an opportunity for the public to scrutinise what we are doing and I think it does a good job in that function."

State of the Borough has been held every autumn since 2002 to assess the condition of Ashford in a range of areas such as education, health, housing, transport and law and order.

The committee agreed to keep the debate but have a joint discussion between councillor parties on how to improve arrangements for it.