Ashby Labour Councillor, Dave Bigby, is calling for Ashby de la Zouch Town Council meeting papers to be made publicly available online for at least 5 years.

The council has started deleting meeting papers from its website once the relevant minutes have been approved.

This means they are no longer freely available to members of the public and aspiring councillors who wish to understand the background behind council decisions.

To read them they, now have to visit the Council offices.

"This is a heavy handed, backward step for public transparency, with no apparent justification," said Cllr Bigby.

"What are they trying to hide? With a Town Council by-election in Holywell ward this Thursday, I would have thought that local electors and council candidates interested in understanding Town Council decisions should have easy online access to all the relevant papers.

"What's remarkable is that these documents are all placed on the website prior to the relevant meeting, kept there for a few weeks and then removed, which actually incurs more effort than just leaving them in place.

"The sorts of decisions that members of the public need to see background papers for include important issues like the purchase of the Bath Grounds, why the council doesn't yet have a planned maintenance scheme for our parks and their decision not to declare a climate emergency.

"I have proposed a motion to the Council meeting on January 24 and I hope all councillors will support re-establishing the previous policy of publishing and maintaining meeting papers online."