Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee has elected its new chairman and vice-chairman at a special meeting.

The meeting of the committee was held yesterday morning at County Hall and its only business was to make the choices of who would chair the committee.

There were two nominations for chairman, with Conservative councillor John Fitter proposed and seconded by his fellow party members and Liberal Democrat councillor Dulcie Tudor also nominated.

Councillors chose to have a secret ballot for the vote and that resulted with nine votes in favour of Cllr Tudor and six for Cllr Fitter.

The selection for vice-chairman was also contested with Cllr Fitter again nominated along with independent councillor Mark Kaczmarek.

Again there was a secret ballot and the result was 10 votes in favour of Cllr Kaczmarek and five for Cllr Fitter.

Eight meetings of the strategic planning committee have been cancelled in the past year. The council has said this has been because of a lack of large-scale planning applications being submitted to the council.

As a result, the council’s remuneration panel has proposed cutting the allowances for the chairman and vice chairman of the committee. The two positions get a special responsibility allowance which is paid in addition to their basic councillor allowance.

Under the proposals the chairman of the strategic planning committee will see their special responsibility allowance cut from £8,032.26 to £5,354.84 – a reduction of £2,677.42. The vice-chairman would be paid £1,606.45 compared to the current rate of £4,016.13 – a cut of £2,409.68.

Councillors were voting on the change to allowances at the full council meeting.