LIBERAL Democrat borough councillors were due to meet last night to thrash out the future of their group.

The annual meeting is normally held in March, but group secretary Dorothy Flint called an emergency general meeting after requests from numerous members.

Among the items up for discussion were the positions of the group officials, including leader, deputy leader, secretary and treasurer, with a call for new officials to be chosen where it was felt to be 'expedient'.

Members were also due to discuss calls for the leader to serve for a maximum of four years, and not to be able to seek re-election for two years after that time.

Also on the agenda was a call for membership of the borough's regulatory committee, which deals with planning issues, to be restricted to a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms.

Members wanted to make the ruling retrospective to apply to existing members of the committee.

The current group leader is Linda Short, who stood down recently as borough council leader in the wake of allegations of misconduct against her.

The Congleton GUARDIAN understands that 13 councillors wrote to Cllr Flint to ask her to call the meeting, which was scheduled to take place at the borough council HQ in Sandbach.