Shropshire Council says it will save money by clamping down on the number of conferences and events that its members can attend each year.

It expects that, from April 1, the annual amount it pays on attending events will fall by 20 per cent to no more than £6,500, which must include both the cost of transport and the accommodation used.

But a requirement that councillors have to present a written report on their findings within 10 days of attending has been changed.

Instead, members have only to “actively seek” to share an oral or written report within 10 working days.

Oswestry town councillor Romer Hoseason accused the council of changing the rules after members attended events and failed to report on them.

He said conferences could be useful to the council but were of no benefit if members were told nothing.

But Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow said the changes had been agreed by the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative party leaders and were part of a move towards making sure members attended only the most important conferences.

Asked about the constitutional change to reporting conference findings, Mr Barrow said it was a way of making the council less bureaucratic and putting responsibility on to individuals.

“Written reports can often be very dry,” he added.

“I find you really get more benefits when you can sit down with a person and ask questions.”

However, he said if the council was not getting enough information from conferences the words would be changed. He said all background papers would still be available to councillors.

He added: “Councillors should only attend conferences when it can be demonstrated that they are directly relevant to their particular individual responsibilities, and that there is likely to be a real benefit from such attendance to Shropshire residents.”

“When councillors do attend they should share their learning with colleagues.”

Councillor Alan Mosley, leader of the Labour group, who was part of the working group, said: “As a matter of policy we have attended few external events as they are expensive and represent very poor value for money.

“We hope a similar review can be undertaken into the use of training providers.”