Hamble Parish Council is less than impressed with Eastleigh council's new set-up of having a leader with an executive cabinet.

The village authority has been consulted over Whitehall proposals to change local government in a bid to make councils more efficient, more in touch with the people they serve and more accountable.

But none of the three options on offer - a directly-elected mayor with cabinet, a directly-elected mayor with a council manager or a council leader with a cabinet - sparked any enthusiasm among the Hamble members.

Parish clerk Kate Cullen said: "I don't think any of the options were felt by the parish council to be a good way to go forward, and this is what we will be telling the borough council."

Hamble's lack of enthusiasm comes hard on the heels of the results of a public survey that showed that 58 per cent of borough residents who responded plumped for the leader-with-executive-cabinet system, which Eastleigh has been trying out.

Only nine per cent of households in the area responded to the "ask-the-people" exercise. But Hamble councillors felt the consultation should have been carried out before the borough council tried out any of the systems.

"Councillors felt that, as the borough council had been running with one of the options, it was unlikely to switch to one of the other two.

"It could also appear that the fewer members of the elected body making the decisions, the less democratic it appears to be," said Ms Cullen.