Calls have been made for more women on the committees at Sandwich Town Council.

Cllr David Wood, the Labour councillor for Sandwich south is calling for the way committee members are selected to be changed.

He believes the method, which sees the mayor selecting candidates for each committee, means that they are not representative of the women and different political parties on the council.

Cllr Sue Laslett agreed, saying: “Women make up a quarter of this council but there is not a quarter of women on the committees, it’s not reflective of the council.

“We need to be more transparent, if there’s people putting themselves forward then there should be a vote.

“It’s quite frustrating for all our councillors and it’s quite difficult for people in the town to understand some of the processes because it isn’t transparent.”

The mayor has always selected each committee member based on individual attributes, which means that a councillor with knowledge of finance is put on the finance committee and councillors with knowledge of tourism are put on the tourism committee, and so on.

Cllr Bernard Butcher said: “As far as the political side is concerned I’m afraid that’s not strictly true. There was a Labour mayor here in Sandwich when there was a Conservative majority.

“Personally I don’t see any reason to change that by voting.”

Cllr Wood also called for members of the finance committee and members of the Toll Bridge Fund to be separate, claiming that two groups would represent a greater proportion of the council and therefore the people of Sandwich.

This move was rejected by the majority of council members who claimed that the old system worked perfectly well for many years.