Changes to the council’s constitution were pushed through last night after a fiery debate.

Redbridge council’s Labour-led administration voted to approve changes including giving more power to the Labour-elected chairman of the planning committee.

The new rules also limit the length of time meetings can go on for and enable the committee to push planning decisions to planning officers where deemed appropriate.

The Labour group said all changes were to shorten planning committee meetings, but the Conservative group were staunchly against some of the proposals; particularly pushing planning decisions to unelected officers.

Cllr Linda Huggett, leader of the Conservative group, said: “This is not right. The public perception of this will be that their rights are being taken away. This leaves the process open to abuse and political bias.”

The opposition pushed for an increase in the number of planning meetings per month to try and tackle the issue of planning committee members having too much to do, but this wasn’t considered.

Labour Cllr Singh Bola, of Cranbrook ward, questioned the Conservative group’s attitude to the constitutional changes.

He said: “I feel the Conservatives have an issue with trust and I don’t understand why they don’t have faith in the system.

“Let’s face it, the changes are long overdue and the key word is efficiency. This will make the whole planning process more efficient.”

Cllr Singh Bola then criticised the Conservative group of hypocrisy.

He said: “Stop this fear of change and stop judging people by your own low standards.

“I won’t let them dictate to us how things should be done.”

Conservative members stood up and shouted back in protest.

Newly elected mayor Mrs Debbie Kaur Thiara asked Cllr Singh Bola to refrain from making “rude” comments.

The changes were approved with a massive majority.

Cllr Michael Duffell and Cllr Suzanne Nolan of South Woodford Conservatives issued a joint statement.

They said: “We are dismayed that the council pushed ahead with changes to the constitution unamended.

“We are concerned that there is now too much power in the hands of one councillor, the chairman of the planning committee who can veto whether anything can appear at the committee regardless of how many people object.

“Planning should be open, transparent and above board with clear rules and we believe this opens the whole process up to potential bias, corruption, and not to mention political interference.”

The administration agreed to a review of the constitutional changes at a committee meeting in September, with any changes to be brought to full council in October or November this year.

Cllr Paul Merry, the former Labour-elected chairman of the planning committee, had urged members to approve the changes.

He said: “The burden of work is so massive, if we don’t do something, we are already struggling for volunteers to sit on the committee, we’ll have to dragoon people in. We are where we are and something has to be done.

“But this is an ongoing process, we have to monitor this.”