New council system 'unworkable'

Derby's political leaders have dismissed a proposal to restructure the council as naïve and unworkable.

Frank Leeming, the city's only UK Independence party councillor, wants each group to be equally represented on the cabinet.

He wants to create a nine member cabinet made up of four Labour councillors, four from the Lib-Dem/Tory alliance and himself.

The two groups currently have equal numbers of councillors.

Chris Williamson, the leader of the Labour group in the city, said the idea is completely impractical.

"I think superficially it looks quite an attractive proposal but I think when you scratch the surface a little bit it would not be workable.

"You would have four political parties all with diametrically opposed views and I think it would be very difficult to get any consistent decision making."