AMENDED terms of references for a number of Cumberland Council committees have been agreed by members of the standards and governance committee.

Members met at the Civic Centre in Carlisle on Wednesday (April 3) to discuss several items including the recommendations from a constitution working group (CWG).

It had been asked to look into the terms of reference for the council's overview and scrutiny, planning, licensing and regulatory committees.

According to the report the CWG met on January 10 to discuss the various overview and scrutiny committees' terms of reference (TOR).

The report states: "The CWG agreed that the TORs did not reflect the ambition or purpose of scrutiny to develop policy or hold the executive to account.

"In addition, the TORs did not reflect the statutory requirement for officers and external individuals/organisations to attend the committees and provide them with information when requested."

Speaking at the meeting councillor Mike Mitchelson (Brampton, Conservative) said that nothing from scrutiny came back to the council and added: "If any councillor wants to question scrutiny there's no opportunity."

He said recommendations from scrutiny committees were contained in the annual report and added: "There's no opportunity for councillors to raise points. I am happy for it to be marked as something to look at."

According to the report the CWG met on February 8 to discuss TORs of the licensing committee, regulatory committee and planning committee.

It was recommended that the standards and governance committee agree the amended terms of references for the various committee and members agreed with the recommendation.