There are growing concerns about a lack of transparency at Tunbridge Wells council, alleged Tunbridge Wells Alliance councillor David Hayward.

And after a prolonged debate at the last full council meeting, it turned out that the majority of councillors agreed with him.

Cllr Hayward said: "If we expect respect and trust from the public with our handling of their services and money, then good standards of transparency and scrutiny need to be evident."

He called for nothing more radical than the establishment of a cross-party working group to examine the Government guidance on what constituted best practice and to see whether the borough was applying it to its own procedures, but even that was too much for some councillors.

Cllr Sean Holden (Con) declared Cllr Hayward's motion as "only an opportunity for the opposition to smear the council ahead of the elections" and he was supported by Cllr Sarah Hamilton (Con), who said it was "simply political grandstanding." But their allegation seemed disproved by the final vote when four Conservative councillors voted with the opposition parties in favour of the motion and another six abstained.

Cllr Chris Woodward (Con), the chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee, attempted to re-assure councillors that his committee could be safely left to ensure there was adequate scrutiny, but Cllr Hayward pointed out with both the chairman and deputy chairman of the scrutiny committee being from the majority Conservative party, the committee was itself not adhering to the Government's best practice guidance.

But far more seriously, he alleged, that when the council was in a crisis over its failed Calverley Square project, reports from the council's expert consultant - which revealed the growing overspend - were not made available even to the overview and scrutiny committee members.

Cllr Hayward said: "Had members had access to those monthly reports, the whole project would have been stopped far earlier, potentially saving this council £8m."

Cllr Hugo Pound (Lab) said: "Scrutiny is not taken seriously in this council.

"It is the whole culture of this council that needs to change."

Cllr James Rands (Lib Dem) said: "It is not sufficient that we feel ourselves to be open (to scrutiny) but that we are clearly open.

"That may mean why have to go to degrees which make some councillors feel uncomfortable and think unnecessary."

He added: "There are concerns are about how many documents are marked 'confidential'."

Cllr Pound also criticised the standard of debate in the council chamber with member's speeches frequently interrupted by other councillors raising "points of order."

He said: "It is not terribly healthy." His comment was immediately followed by a point of order from the leader of the council, Alan McDemott (Con), who told the Mayor, Cllr Joy Podbury, who was chairing the meeting, that Cllr Hayward should not be allowed to speak again.

The council voted to set up the investigative working party by 22 votes to 16, with six abstentions.

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