HEREFORDSHIRE'S ruling Conservative party has been attacked for appointing its own members to help lead scrutiny committees.

The council's leading opposition party, It's Our County, asked the Tories for more representation, particularly on the two scrutiny bodies set up to examine the decisions of the party in power.

The calls were made during a full council meeting at Hereford Shirehall to vote on appointments to each council committee.

During the debate, Independent member Cllr Pauline Crockett lost out to Conservative Cllr John Stone for the role of vice-chairman of Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny, while Cllr Carole Gandy, another Tory, collected more votes than IOC leader Cllr Anthony Powers for the role of vice-chairman General Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

"It is widely regarded as being better practice for these posts not to be held by members of the administration," said Cllr Powers in nominating Cllr Crockett.

"The principal is the issue here.

"In proposing Cllr Crockett I have nothing but respect for Cllr Stone.

"But, where a principal is concerned an individual's experience may have to be set aside."

Elsewhere, IOC's Cllr Sharon Michael lost out to Conservative Cllr Bruce Baker for the Regulatory Committee vice-chair, while Cllr Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes was outvoted for chairman of the Health Overview and Scrutiny by Cllr Polly Andrews.

In proposing her, IOC's deputy leader, Cllr Liz Harvey, said Cllr Lloyd-Hayes would have been the ideal choice.

"She has worked in both health and social care," she said.

"This is our joint top priority. We should not be afraid of strong scrutiny and I don't feel we've had the strength of scrutiny that we should since Cllr (Carl) Attwood (who chaired the committee during the last administration)."

At the start of the meeting, Cllr Tony Johnson was sworn in for a second term as leader of the council.