Councillors have been called dinosaurs after voting to revert back to calling leaders of their committees chairman - rather than chair in official documents.

The decision was made at a Maidstone Borough Council meeting after Cllr Paul Cooper (Con) proposed amendments as part of a "tidying-up exercise".

One of those was to correct an inconsistency - with the lengthy document sometimes referring to "chair" and sometimes to "chairman."

Cllr Cooper's solution was to alter every reference to read "chairman" - giving Latin grammar as his reason.

He said: "In this scenario the 'man' in chairman does not refer to a male human being. It is a neutral pronoun which has existed in Latin, has a Greek root and exists in Sanskrit (an ancient Hindu language) and is carried through in pretty much every Indo-European language - including our own."

"I see no reason to change our language to suit any particular agenda. If someone wants to be called a 'chair' that is entirely down to them - although personally I think a chair is something which one sits upon."

Green party member Stuart Jeffery disagreed. He proposed an amendment to alter the wording to "chair " in every case.

He said: "Just last year, The Institute of Directors, the Confederation of British Industry and the British Chambers of Commerce all wrote to the Government's Business Secretary asking for Companies House to drop the term ‘chairman’ in their model Articles of Association (the document that forms limited companies) and to use the gender-neutral term ‘chair’.

"They described this as a 'small but highly symbolic move that would help break down subconscious bias' - but we at the council are going in the other direction.

"We are moving towards gendered language, rather than away from it."

He was supported by Cllr Maureen Cleator, leader of the Labour group, who said: "I am the chair of many committees in Labour and in the trade unions. I am not a man; I am a chair - as are my male co-chairs.

"I see this as a retrograde step, going back to the days when women didn't sit in local Government, to the days when women weren't even allowed the vote.

"I don't see why we are going backwards - we are in the 21st century."

But Conservative colleagues disagreed. Cllr John Perry (Con) also referenced Latin, and the French as people we should be taking a lead from.

He said: "This is a generic word. It doesn't refer to male or female in this instance.

"In Latin for instance there are several words - agricola is one (Latin for farmer) that have a feminine ending, but refer to a male.

"If I am in France and I'm attending a European Commission meeting - which I do - you address a woman chairman as Madame Le President ('Le' being the French male prefix.)

"This is a ridiculous proposal from Cllr Jeffery - and we should bin it."

Cllr Fay Gooch (Ind) reminded the council of the time it had a female leader - Cllr Fran Wilson (Lib Dem).

She said: "She's quite a robust woman. She was quite strong - I know as I was her deputy for a while.

"And what I can hear ringing in my ears is her saying loudly: 'I am not a chair - I am a chairman!"

Cllr Gooch said: "She was right. The problem I have is that I'm a woman. But I must not say the 'man' bit because that's being sexist, so I'm announcing myself as 'Wo.'"

Her joke caused some laughter.

Cllr Jeffery said: "I want an inclusive council - one that uses modern language."

But his words were falling on stony ground. The council voted by 40 votes to six to opt for chairman.

After the meeting, Cllr Jeffery said: "Maidstone likes to celebrate Iggy, an Iguanodon dinosaur found in my ward in 1822. Iggy lives outside Maidstone East these days.

"Obviously, it was only his fossilised remains that were found, rather than a live dinosaur. Live dinosaurs are generally only found in council meetings."

"Quoting Latin at me only demonstrates their archaic understanding of the world."

Strangely, another of the amendments to the constitution as proposed by Cllr Cooper and which was accepted by all councillors without comment was to change wording in the old constitution from "he/she" to "they" and from "his/her" to "their".