A DECISION to open meetings of the cabinet at Shepway District Council to the press and public has been welcomed.

Leader of the council Rory Love made the announcement at a meeting of the full council. Fellow Conservative councillor Pat Waddell said: "I am very pleased at this decision. Since the start of the cabinet system I've felt that cabinet decisions should be held in public."

Cllr Love said he had decided to stop holding cabinet meetings behind closed doors and he wanted the council to seem more "transparent" and "democratic".

Central Government called for a re-organisation of local Government in 1999, urging local authorities to trial either cabinet and leader systems or to have directly elected mayors. The decision on whether to hold cabinet meetings in the open or in secret was left to individual authorities.

Members of the cabinet include the leader of the cabinet and the district secretaries for economic development, the environment and transport, housing and community affairs.