Wirral Council is set to ditch its current leadership model after a fiery town hall meeting dealt a major blow to the council leader and his Labour group.

A volatile meeting, with accusations flying around in every direction, all the opposition parties voted against Labour’s amendment to delay the change to 2021, meaning it was voted down by 33 votes to 27.

The council is now legally obliged to abolish its leader and cabinet model and move to a committee system by May 2020.

Opening the debate, Conservative Councillor Tony Cox said: “The strong leader and cabinet model is putting too much power in too few people’s hands. Many backbench councillors feel underutilised.”

Cllr Cox was angry that voters would ask why he had made poor decisions, such as the now-scrapped £26 million investment in the Hoylake Golf Resort, when in reality he felt he had little say in most matters.

Conservative Councillor Chris Blakeley, said the current model resembled a “secret society”, as the cabinet and their advisers make decisions and backbench councillors are left in the dark.

Under the current leader and cabinet model, most decisions are taken by a group of 10 cabinet members, they are then voted on by the council and scrutinised by committees.

However, committees can only make recommendations to the council, they do not make binding decisions and when one party has a majority of seats on the council some see it as more of a ‘rubber-stamping’ body.

Council leader Pat Hackett said he supported the changes, but did not want to see them rushed. Adding that to do so would be “folly in the extreme”.

He noted that the Local Government Association (LGA), said such a change normally takes between 12 and 18 months, whereas opposition parties want it done in just over six months.

Cllr Hackett added: “The public will never forgive us if we get this wrong.

“Surely doing it gradually, and getting it right and thinking it through makes more sense.”

LGA advice informs Wirral Council that a constitutional change can be done in six months, but an “off the shelf” model would be the only option available if the council wanted the move done in that time frame.

The specifics of the new committee system are yet to be finalised, but the model usually involves councillors from all parties forming committees on each policy area, such as health, children’s services and the environment.

These committees have the power to make binding decisions that become the council’s policy, this is why the system is seen as giving more power to backbench councillors.

Under this model, the role of council leader does not cease to exist. Instead, the leader chairs a policy committee involving the chairs of every other committee.

This group sets policy on major issues, such as the budget, but will likely be made up of many different parties meaning the committee’s debates should be much more rigorous.

Advice from the LGA also states that changing the decision-making model will cost between £70,000 and £200,000, though some of this cost would have been incurred anyway as the council has been told it needs to rewrite its constitution.

Labour Councillor Thomas Usher – who will lose his seat at the next election after being deselected by his local party – decried the “machismo” of councillors who said this change could be achieved in six months if only everyone pulled together and got on with it, citing the government’s difficulties over Brexit as an example of tight deadlines being missed.

Tempers flared in the chamber, as Labour Councillor Steve Foulkes said Cllr Tony Cox was using the new constitution as an opportunity to grab hold of powers to set councillors’ pay.

Cllr Cox refuted the claim, which was based on a committee exchange, and the Lord Mayor asked Cllr Foulkes to withdraw his words.

Cllr Foulkes initially admitted he may have misunderstood Cllr Cox, before rising to his feet to make the claim once more later in the meeting.

As the clock approached 10pm, the leaders of the Green and Liberal Democrat groups spoke against Labour’s amendment and it was ultimately defeated.

Wirral Council now has six months to put forward a new constitution, which will see the end of its cabinet.