A major shake up of how Helston Town Council operates could be in the pipeline.

The council is to look at the way it runs its meetings, including how many different committees it has.

It could mean a return to the old days, when the council simply had two full council meetings a month.

Currently there is one meeting each month when all members gather together, plus a number of smaller committees dealing with areas such as planning, finances and “amenities.”

The suggestion to reduce the number of meetings held – therefore reducing the time spent on administration by office staff, plus allowing all councillors to be involved in all decisions – was first raised by councillor Martine Knight in March last year.

At the time it was decided to maintain the status quo, but last week Mrs Knight resurrected the issue, saying since then many other councils in the country had got rid of their committee system. This was also the advice from the Cornwall Association of Local Councils (CALC).

She added that during the current civic year the town council would hold 65 meetings on 52 separate dates – not including meetings of workings parties that report back to the committees.

This figure was higher than if a full council meeting was held every week of the year.

Mrs Knight also reported that during September last year 84 hours and 50 minutes were spent by the council’s office staff in dealing with these meetings – including creating agendas and writing up subsequent minutes – which was the equivalent of 11.5 working days of that month.

“How can we allow that?” she said. “It’s essential to free up staff time where possible and work smarter, so new responsibilities and duties can be seen to without further burden on the public purse.”

However, she described a previous suggestion of having longer gaps between meetings and taking more decisions through delegated powers as “bonkers” and therefore suggested two full council meetings every month so that the “vast and varied experience of all members would be utilised.”

Councillor John Boase was concerned that when this format was previously used by the council there just wasn’t enough time to debate matters properly, because of agendas containing so many items.

He also warned that the planning committee would have to remain, due to the complex nature of planning applications.

When asked for his opinion, town clerk Chris Dawson believed simply holding two meetings a month was “too extreme” and agreed that planning was a meeting in itself.

He added that historical minutes often showed meetings with 30 or 40 items on the town clerk’s report and in recent years the council had taken on many more responsibilities.

He suggested having separate planning and finance committees, with two full council meetings to deal with the remaining matters.

Councillor John Martin was in support of Mrs Knight’s idea, however, but with the addition of creating more formal working parties that would inform the full council.

It was agreed that a working party would be set up, involving mayor Mike Thomas, deputy mayor Mark Utpon, the town clerk and the chairs of the committees, to work out some options for the full council to decide on.