A REDDITCH councillor says the council needs to take urgent action to interest residents in local government decision making.

James Uphill made the comments after only 4.7 per cent of the electorate replied to a questionnaire on how to modernise democracy within the council.

Councillors expressed their disappointment at the public's response.

Commenting on the fact that not one member of the public had turned up to last Wednesday's full council meeting Mr Uphill said "how nice" it was to see so many Redditch people had come to hear what was going on.

He said: "We need to get people out and interested in what this council does.

"And we need people who have influence in the town to become more involved with us.

"It is so important that residents are interested in the decisions we make."

But Councillor Betty Passingham slammed the "modernising democracy" process as ''boring''.

Mrs Passingham said: "I think it is all very boring - I would describe it as pap."

And Councillor Mike Chalk said: "The last time we discussed this, I left the meeting feeling more depressed than I ever have in my life."

The council carried out the consultation to see which of four new leadership options, which have been opened up under the Local Government Act 2000, people want.