A MAJOR inquiry into the state of democracy in Liverpool today reports a lack of diversity, poor behaviour at council meetings and a glut of obstacles to attracting people into local government.

A draft version of the Report of the Liverpool Commission, obtained by the Daily Post ahead of its official launch today, highlights the fact that, of 90 city councillors, only two were from racial minorities.

It found the over-use of jargon, outdated modes of communicating with the electorate and the conduct of councillors at meetings were all partly to blame for the upkeep of stereotypes of local democracy.

Cllr Alan Dean told the commission that “behaviour at the council meeting was poor, it needs to be more mature and we need to look at new approaches to deal with it effectively.”

Many will welcome recommendations that the council should invest in new technology, such as web casts of meetings and the use of social networking sites.

Increasing the involvement of under-represented groups will also be a key task.

But the report will not meet with universal approval, as one councillor last night said the whole process had been “a farce” and a waste of time and public money.

Liberal leader Cllr Steve Radford said he felt the Commission, chaired by Liverpool JMU vice chancellor Michael Brown, had attempted to meddle with the workings of political parties by trying to introduce US-style candidate selections.

The report recommended that “the principle of primary selection of candidates has the potential to create a more diverse councillor population that reflects the demographics of the local population.” It encourages parties to implement this within their candidate selection process.