Another battle over council secrecy has broken out in the North East.

Darlington Borough Council became the latest authority to announce that key decisions would be taken by a one-party cabinet meeting behind closed doors.

The move came under fire from the Northern Echo, which accused the Labour-controlled council of treating the public with contempt.

It came only days after Newcastle City Council announced that it was throwing cabinet meetings open to the public, following a campaign by the Evening Chronicle.

The Echo said in a leader that Darlington’s decision must be challenged.

“It is by no means the only council in the region which has taken the Government’s call for a more modern local government as a signal to freeze out the Press and the public.

“As we have said before, it is a system which we believe dilutes democracy because local government has to be transparent, open, and close to the people it serves.”

The paper quoted council leader John Williams as saying that holding meetings in public “would merely create a theatrical experience for onlookers”. The Echo retorted: “We are not sure how many times Coun Williams has been to the theatre lately, but we take a somewhat different view of the entertainment value of council meetings.”

It added: “Holding meetings in public would actually give onlookers the chance to know what is being done with their money by politicians for whom they voted. Instead, members of the public are being treated with contempt.”

Meanwhile, Newcastle city councillor Peter Thomson has dismissed the Evening Chronicle’s claim to have secured a victory for open government – and accused the leader of his own group of pulling a con trick by opening up cabinet meetings.

He told the paper: “Presumably, the majority group on the new cabinet (the same people who made up the old cabinet) will now revert to secret meetings with neither agenda nor minutes being made public.

“Is the Chronicle really sure this is a victory for open government?”

Assistant editor Jane Pikett maintained that the decision was a victory for democracy and said that while political groups would continue to meet in private, the public would now be able to attend cabinet meetings and hear what their elected representatives had to say.

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