A SHAKE-UP of how Worcester City Council operates could be on the cards - including scrapping its current cabinet system of power.

Talks are being held at the Guildhall over the council’s 'governance arrangements' to see if the current blueprint should be ripped up.

The Worcester News understands nothing is being ruled off the table at this stage, including ditching the current cabinet model for an old-fashioned committee system where power is shared more equally among councillors.

Such a change would move the city council back to how it was in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, when it used the traditional committee system before New Labour introduced new laws in 2000, which allowed local authorities to convert to cabinet systems and ‘mimic’ national Government.

After 2000 the vast majority of councils across Britain decided to be controlled by cabinets and a leader, but there has been widespread concern that it concentrates power into the hands of too few people.

The talks follow a remarkable summer in which the result of May’s local elections left no party in overall control - a situation which is becoming common in Worcester.

At one stage Labour, the Conservatives and Greens were locked in negotiations about an unlikely ‘Rainbow Coalition’, but it fell apart.

The current Labour administration is propped up by two Green councillors, leaving decision-making in a fairly precarious situation until another set of elections results in one party being able to form an overall majority.

The work to consider any changes is being led by five councillors on a cross-party working group including Conservatives Marc Bayliss and Lucy Hodgson, Green Louis Stephen and Labour’s Chris Cawthorne and Pat Agar.

Councillor Stephen said: “It’s Green Party policy to have committee systems, so we want to look at the options.

“We’ve got a lot of councillors who are not so involved in the decisions, so why not make use of the talents of everyone?”

Labour Councillor Adrian Gregson, the city’s leader, said: “It’s an interesting piece of work and we’ll have to see what comes of it.”

Councillor Bayliss, who will chair the cross-party group, leads the Conservative group and had a spell as city leader himself before the party lost control in May.

He has consistently stated that no party has "a god given right to govern" unless they can command a majority of seats.

The working group has been set up by the council's scrutiny committee.