The council’s ruling group has called for a full council meeting to be held in January so that councillors can debate a greater number of issues.

This came just over 24 hours before a special meeting was held on Thursday, January 24, in which a debate around house-building in Shinfield saw councillors and members of the public walk out in protest after a constitutional crisis.

Councillor Julian McGhee-Sumner, leader of Wokingham Borough Council, said: “Every January, the council is increasingly finding that we need to have an extraordinary meeting to get through all the business we want to discuss.

“By adding a regular meeting each year, we will have more time to debate and make decisions, and there will be more opportunities for local residents to question the work that we are doing.

“I hope that opposition councillors will support this Conservative proposal.”

The meeting last week was called because the council needed to debate a petition signed by 1,600 Shinfield residents regarding overdevelopment in the area, as well as to vote on a proposal to introduce a new council tax support scheme.

These issues had not been scheduled for either of the scheduled full-council meetings in November or February and therefore a special, one-off meeting was created to host the issues.

Liberal Democrats councillor Lindsay Ferris, leader of the opposition, said: “We have been pushing for January meetings for five years – it always got voted against.

“It does make sense and it would be an improvement.”

Should the Cllr McGhee-Sumner’s proposal go ahead, another full council meeting would take place in January, starting from next year.