In previous years Harborough Council’s business planning process saw all members attend a workshop at which they can put forward ideas for the authority’s priorities.

However this year’s workshop was postponed and the all-Conservative executive committee, essentially the council’s cabinet, listed its nine priorities for the forthcoming year during a special meeting held on Monday last week – a list produced without opposition involvement.

The priorities for the council this year include looking at asset management; communications and community engagement; the eco-town; efficiency and change management; housing, members’ allowances; staff pay and grading review; planning enforcement; and training of staff and members.

However, at a meeting of full council on Monday night, Lib Dem Cllr Barbara Johnson submitted a question asking why the workshop had been postponed and whether the business planning process is on target.

A written response to Cllr Johnson, read out by Conservative Cllr Alistair Swatridge, the council’s leader, said the Lib Dems had not been involved in the process because of a ‘very different political balance within the council’.

Only two seats separated the groups until the May 2007 election, when the Tories swept to victory. The group now holds 15 more seats than the Lib Dems – 26 to 11 – and controls the council.

Cllr Swatridge said instability within the council, caused by there being four different leaders since 2005, has been one of the reasons for a 32 per cent rise in district council expenditure in the last five years.

He added: “Not only has the political make-up changed radically, this year we find ourselves in an entirely different financial situation, which is governed by depleted resources and revenue.

“The same basic [business planning] process has been followed, but only with the administration. Given the nature of the task to be undertaken and the change in the political make-up of the council it was not considered appropriate to be undertaken with opposition involvement.”