A NEW tier of local government aimed at giving residents more of a say has been labelled a democratic farce.

At Monday night's Horsforth Town Council meeting, angry councillors claimed that the Horsforth Community Forum was 'a waste of time'.

But the group's chairman has hit back, saying the town council should remember its place.

At the meeting councillors said various sub-groups set up in the forum duplicated the town council's work, they claimed only selected people were invited to join the the newly-established Horsforth and Cookridge Community Involvement Team (CIT) and were annoyed that the town council only had one representative on the CIT - and that he wasn't even nominated by fellow councillors.

Councillor Bernie Coleman said: "This is a democratic farce. There seems to be a duplication of work and conflict appears to be imminent. We have a democratic mandate to this town and are going to guard it jealously." Coun Alastair Cook said: "A competitive structure has been set up by Leeds City Council. We need to go back to them and tell them that this is a load of rubbish."

Chairman of Horsforth and Cookridge CIT, Coun Chris Townsley (Lib Dem, Horsforth) said town council members could be co-opted onto the forum committees. "It is early days and we have not been running very long. We are here for one reason and that is for the good of Horsforth."

He added that the town council was trying to act as if it was a city council and should know its limitations. "The town council is the icing on the cake for Horsforth, the city council is the cake. I'm not belittling the town councillors but they are trying to do things which are not in their remit."

The town council will discuss the issue at a special meeting next month.