A disillusioned Worthing councillor has been to just one council meeting in six months, saying he refuses to "just become a whinger".

Andrew Garrett, who has served on Worthing Borough Council for six years, will be standing down at next May's election.

He says changes to the way local government is run have made council meetings pointless.

Coun Garrett has championed a number of community projects in recent years, including the revival of the Maybridge Keystone Club and helping form the Maybridge Community Forum.

Local government changes mean the majority of council decisions are made by seven executive councillors - the Cabinet - rather than being voted on by a committee of councillors from both parties.

When the changes were introduced last year, Conservative Coun Garrett was elected as the town's executive member for community development.

He lost the Cabinet seat when the Liberal Democrats took control of the council in May.

Coun Garrett said: "Under the new system, unless you are an executive member there is little or no point attending council meetings.

"All the decisions are made by one person, all the other councillors do is talk for the sake of talking.

"There are a number of councillors who are quite happy to do that - I'm not one of them. I am an active member of the community and there are too many other things to be involved in.

"You just become a whinger. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The new system is a system of absolute power. For everyone else it's a talking shop.

"I'll still deal with representing my residents but I won't waste times in meetings. I'm very disillusioned with it."

Coun Garrett said he was determined to stay involved in community projects.

Council leader Sheila Player said opposition councillors could still be effective under the new system and her party's success at the last election proved it.

She said: "It's fair to say it is more difficult to be a good opposition under the new modernised system.

"Under our administration, meetings have been opened up for all members to take a thorough part in the debate. It's not fair of Coun Garrett to say he would not have any say.

"I accept, if we stuck to the rigid rules of only allowing the opposition to ask questions rather than make comments, that would erode democracy. But we have not taken that stance."

She said: "The way we are using the new system is a democratic as we can get it. If Coun Garret feels the system is not right, why not get in and fight it? You can only fight from the inside."

Coun Player added: "Last year, I was leader of the opposition under a very harsh system. The Tories did not allow us to make comments, only questions.

"Yet I continued to go to every meeting, continued to voice my opinions and objections and I think we were very effective. Otherwise we would not be in control now."