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The leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council has hit back at accusations that senior councillors will be going “part-time” once the number of their meetings are halved.

Starting this month, cabinet meetings at the local authority will be held monthly, rather than fortnightly.

Cllr Lindsay Whittle, the leader of the opposition Plaid Cymru group on the council, accused the cabinet of going “part-time” after the changes were revealed in an email from chief executive Christina Harrhy.

Labour’s Sean Morgan, who leads the local authority, has hit back at Cllr Whittle’s criticism.

Cllr Morgan said: “Cllr Whittle and his Plaid Cymru group are clearly stuck in the past, with their outdated and archaic views on local government.

“While they only seem to measure success by the number of meetings they attend, I measure success by improving services and providing value for money to our residents. We are modernising, transforming and improving our services and the way we do business.

“This is reflected in the way that the cabinet, by doing a ‘deep dive’ into service areas, has already identified somewhere in the region of £14 million of efficiencies.”

He added: “I will not take time management criticism from someone who deemed it reasonable to be both a councillor and a Senedd Member at the same time – probably not giving either role the attention that one would expect.”

Policy development meetings between the council’s political leaders in cabinet and its corporate management team currently take place every two weeks – alternating with cabinet meetings.

Under the new arrangements, policy meetings will happen three weeks in a row, followed by a cabinet meeting on the fourth week.

Cabinet meetings currently last around one to two hours, but the new cabinet meetings will now last around two to three-and-a-half hours.

Labour has argued the extra policy meeting between the cabinet and the corporate management team will mean more opportunities for the council’s leadership to develop new ways of working against a backdrop of decreasing budgets.