CONSERVATIVE councillors walked out of a debate on the council's unitary authority proposals, prompting criticisms of 'disgraceful behaviour'.

A motion was brought forward at last week's full council meeting by Babergh's leader, Cllr John Ward, to formally adopt a three-unitary system as the council's preferred option for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

But Cllr Michael Holt, Babergh's Tory Group leader, questioned its legality after the council's decision to also back a two-unitary solution in March.

He said approving the motion would supersede the previous decision, which was not allowed by the council's constitution.

Councillors were told the previous decision, which backed both models, facilitated the submission of the council's interim proposals, meaning a further decision backing just one system was appropriate as final submissions were due in September.

Ahead of the debate Cllr Holt, alongside Tory members Peter Beer, Paul Clover, Margaret Maybury, Isabelle Reece and Brian Riley, left the meeting.

Cllr Ward criticised the walkout. He said: "It is unfortunate and does their residents a disservice that they did not contribute to the debate and let everyone know their views on the way forward for Suffolk."

Watch the walk out via this link.

Cllr Derek Davies said the walkout was 'disgraceful behaviour' as the debate was about something fundamentally important for the entire county.

Cllr Clover said the decision to walk out was due to their concerns not being properly addressed, labelling the motion both undemocratic and unconstitutional.

He said the Conservative group was not necessarily against the idea of two or three unitaries, but said the democratic process was not followed.

The motion itself was ultimately backed with 20 votes for and one abstention.

Cllr Ward said three councils with populations of just over 250,000 people would both deliver local accountability and decision-making as well as be big enough to meet the needs of communities.

He admitted although the county council's proposal for a single unitary was likely cheaper, it wouldn't be the best for residents.

He said there were examples of well-run smaller unitary councils across the country and expressed his belief the public 'really doesn't like the idea' of a single council for the whole county.