CHESHIRE East councillors are set to vote next week on whether to adopt a new committee style of decision making in what would be the biggest shake-up of governance since the authority's establishment.

The move would see the scrapping of the current Cabinet system and a move to politically proportionate committees being set up in different council areas of responsibility, such as social care.

A "special" meeting of the full council is being held on Thursday to decide on the proposals, which have had cross-party support so far.

A report prepared for councillors and authored by the council's chief executive, Lorraine O'Donnell, explains: "Under a committee system, decisions are made by politically proportionate service committees. The power to make formal decisions is delegated by Full Council to the committees, subcommittees, or to officers.

"Unlike the executive model of governance, in which individual portfolio holders can make decisions, there can be no single-member decision-making under a committee system."

Under the current system, the Cabinet is made up of the leader and deputy leader as well as 10 portfolio holders who are responsible for decision making in their respective areas. Following the May 2019 elections, the Cabinet is made up of Labour and independent councillors.

The report said choosing to go down such the new path would mark a "profound" change to the council that cannot be changed for at least five years.

If councillors back the move, its new system of governance will take effect from May 12 next year after the annual meeting of the full council, which marks the start of a new civic year.

The committee system would mark a return to how councils were governed before the Local Government Act in 2000.

Ms O'Donnell advises councillors that the committee system will lead to "certain decision-making powers delegated to officers", adding: "officers exercising decision-making powers may be empowered to do so outright, or subject to consultation with lead members, such as chairs of committees."

The report explains there are certain "strategic risks" for councillors to consider, especially when responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The council has been managing its strategic response to the Covid-19 pandemic and has been working in the most challenging conditions experienced in at least a generation to understand, respond to and plan for recovery from an emergency that affects lives, health, care, education, businesses, livelihoods, culture and leisure," Ms O'Donnell wrote.

She added: "The conditions under which the council is considering the resolution could not have been foreseen when the motion was unanimously agreed in 2019."

To reduce the risk of slow decision making during the transition to the new system, Ms O'Donnell wrote it would be necessary to temporarily "extend delegated powers" to council officers to deliver proposals approved in the February budget.

However, she did acknowledge the pressures put on council staff during the pandemic, writing: "Officers are already stretched and there are growing signs of fatigue."

One of the identified cost implications of the change, if approved, would be the level of allowances afforded to councillors with the added layer of decision making under the committee system.

Another concern raised is the potential for the productivity of council officers to drop with the expected demand on their time from councillors.

The change was initially expected to take effect in May of this year, but in a February meeting, councillors decided to push it back after the first proposals were turned down last November