THE formation of two new committees should help restore the public's trust in West Somerset District Council, members were told at the inaugural meeting of the new performance committee. Between them, the new performance committee and policy development committee would take over the duties of the old overview and scrutiny committee. While the performance committee would be "backward looking" - scrutinising decisions and keeping a check on the actions of the cabinet and full council - the policy development committee would be "forward looking" - helping to ensure the council functions properly by checking, reviewing and formulating policies. The performance committee would also retain the overview and scrutiny committee's right to review call-ins of executive decisions. Newly resigned Tory Cllr Mike Gammon called for clarification on the call-in process to ensure any future attempts to call-in decisions did not fall foul of "technicalities". He accused chief executive Tim Howes of "blocking" call-ins and said it was vital he was not allowed to do so in the future. Cllr Christine Lawrence said Mr Howes had not blocked a call-in but had had to stop one in the past "on a technicality". But Cllr Gammon was adamant: "Last time we were stopped because we had the wrong wording - can someone tell me what words we should have put there?" Chairman of the performance committee, Cllr Simon Stokes, said the call-in procedure could be addressed through specific training but it was up to councillors to ensure the correct process was followed "then the chief executive has no chance of blocking them". He told members at Friday's meeting the roles of both committees would be crucial to the future success of the authority. He said: "We are here to hold the executive to account and ensure the council carries out council business openly. "If we do our job properly, the general public will understand and, hopefully, we won't get ourselves into the messes we have got into before. "We are not an opposition - we can't be, as there are five councillors who are from the ruling group." He said, under the terms of reference for the performance committee, non-councillors could be co-opted to participate in meetings, although they would not be allowed to vote. Cllr Stokes said one such co-option could be Minehead businessman Graham Sizer in his capacity as chairman of the pressure group DIRECT. He said such a co-opted member would give councillors "a valuable insight into people's opinions". He added: "If people are involved in our discussions, some of the misconceptions this council believes are out there will be resolved. "It is crucial this committee and the policy committee gets it right so we can hopefully rebuild trust in this council." l As part of its remit, the committee appointed five members to form the council's audit panel, which would have responsibility for reviewing internal and external audit reports. The panel would ensure any recommendations in audit reports were implemented and reviewed and also approve both the authority's audited and unaudited accounts. The panel members were named as: Keith Ross, Mike Gammon, Keith Parkes, Pam Driver and Viv Brewer.