Councillors in Whitchurch have voted to adopt a lighting plan to replace the current lights in the sports and market hall in the Civic Centre.

At the town's full council meeting last Thursday, councillors were asked to debate and then decide on a fixed price for replacing lighting, given by Shropshire Council's Property Services Group (PSG).

The proposal, by Councillor Norma Raynes, will see the lighting plan adopted for PSG to then put out to tender and Town Clerk Nicola Young advertise tender for the project.

But the agreement was not without controversy as councillors spent around an hour heatedly debating the agenda item before settling on the proposal with members clashing with the town clerk.

Councillors John Sinnott, who said he had not seen a minute from any committee asking for a lighting plan, and Andy Hall both proposed on more than one occasion the item be sent back to the Civic Committee for their review and recommendation before returning to full council.

However, they were told that as a resolution had been passed to receive a price from PSG during the extraordinary full town council meeting on August 23, then it could not be passed back to committee.

Cllr Hall expressed his disgust that the tender had not been put out to local firms – he cited Barlows, based in Malpas, as one – who employ people from the town to do the job.

Ms Young told him that PSG have a preferred list of contractors which local firms may not be on but can apply to be so.

During the debate, it was revealed that Cllr Sinnott had approached the internal auditor – although he initially did not want to divulge the details of the conversation – raising concerns that the fixed price of £16,004.63 did not represent good value for the people of Whitchurch.

He went as far to say he felt the move to use the lighting plan was illegal, stating the replacement of the lights could be done internally and not need a project manager.

Councillors continued to ask for assurances that it was not a foregone conclusion that PSG price's will be the one used and that other companies can tender for the project.

The proposal was passed after Cllr Lee Broders expressed support for Cllrs Sinnott and Hall's points of view but re-asserted it could not go back to committee because of the August 23 resolution.

All councillors except Cllr Sinnott voted in favour of Cllr Raynes's proposal.

Meanwhile, Cllr Raynes's agenda item to improve the presence of councillors on the website – with a picture, email and small biography – was passed unanimously.

However, it was agreed that councillors will only need to write 100 words and may use previous pictures.

The changes are expected to be be made by November.

Councillors also approved protocol for the recording of meetings, including announcements of name prior to talking.

They also asked to include the clerk and members of the public too, while also asking for language to be gender nuetral.