The full meeting of Cornwall Council descended into farce this afternoon during a debate on whether the people of Cornwall should have a say on whether Cornwall should have a directly elected mayor.

A marathon debate which, to the uninitiated was also probably fairly tedious, saw councillors arguing semantics along with the ins and outs of the constitution of the council as opposite sides of the council chamber locked horns over the contentious issue.

Cornwall has been given the chance to secure a new county devolution deal with the Government, but Westminster has said that in order for Cornwall to secure the top level three devolution it will have to change its governance and have a directly elected mayor.

Since then there has been a campaign to secure a referendum on the issue with concerns that it should be a decision made by the people of Cornwall and not just the 87 members of Cornwall Council. A petition with several thousand signatures has been collected and more than 70 parish and town councils have passed motions calling for a referendum on the issue.

Cornwall Council has announced plans for a public consultation to be launched next week to give people a chance to give their views on the proposed devolution deal and whether Cornwall should have a mayor.

Ahead of the meeting Cornwall Council said that the new devolution deal would bring £390million into Cornwall. However councillors have said that the deal is based over 30 years and so would only be worth an extra £13m a year, they also claim that it will not provide any additional funding for the provision of council services.

At today’s council meeting Independent councillor Tim Dwelly tabled a motion which sought to get the council to agree that it should vote on whether a referendum should be held on whether Cornwall has a mayor and that this vote should take place after the consultation has been considered. Cllr Dwelly said: “I personally believe that the people of Cornwall should make this decision.”

He said that 74 parish and town councils had now agreed that a referendum on a Mayor for Cornwall should be held and that these councils represented 56 per cent of Conwall’s population.

The motion was seconded by Conservative councillor John Conway who said that the decision on whether Cornwall should have a mayor should not rest with the council leader, the Cabinet or the council itself but should be made by the people of Cornwall.

He said: “The decision on whether we have a referendum should be made in this room. What we are asking for is for that decision to be made when the consultation and the deal is finished.”

However, Conservative councillor John Keeling then put forward an amendment calling for the decision to be deferred until a report had been provided on the consultation exercise. That amendment was put to the vote and agreed with 44 votes in favour and 36 against.

However, the debate did not stop there and continued with many interruptions for points of order and claims that views were being misrepresented.

Mebyon Kernow councillor Andrew Long was unimpressed and said that he was “quite ashamed” of what had happened in the chamber during the debate. He said that the original proposal had been simple and designed to ensure that councillors could have a say on whether a referendum should be held but said that “party politics got in the way again”.

He said it was “embarrassing” that councillors were arguing about the issue when people are going hungry, highlighting that he was set to carry out a soup run later in the week. He described it as “shameful”.

Armand Toms said that he was concerned that the council could repeat the mistakes made when the unitary council was first set up and a consultation exercise was undertaken without giving people a vote on the final outcome. He described the decision to create the unitary authority as one of the worst ever made in the council chamber for East Cornwall.

Another amendment was proposed by Cllr Dwelly to ensure that the council would vote on a referendum after the consultation concluded. This was narrowly defeated by just one vote with 38 in favour and 39 against.

Eventually the entire motion was voted on again, with Cllr Keeling’s amendment and this was carried with 43 in favour and 34 against. The 10-week consultation on Cornwall’s devolution deal is set to start on December 9.

If Cornwall Council accepts the deal and to have a directly elected mayor it is expected that elections for the first mayor would be held in 2024.