A BID to stop Oxford City Council cutting its watchdog committees from two to one has been defeated.

The Green Party tabled a series of amendments to a shake-up of how the Labour-run authority makes decisions.

This included a call not to merge the communities and partnership and value and performance scrutiny committees, which look into issues before they go to the executive board for decision.

Green leader David Williams said the cut would be “very inefficient”.

But council leader Bob Price said the new scrutiny committee would have sub-groups to study issues that interest members instead of those set for the executive board.