Amsterdam city council has voted in favour of abolishing the city’s seven administrative committees, the elected bodies which replaced the borough councils in 2014.

Instead, the city’s seven boroughs will be managed by non-elected officials appointed by the central council and ‘advised’ by 22 committees made up of local representatives.

The change will end the conflict between central and local city government, supporters of the new set-up say. The main opposition parties – Labour and GroenLinks – voted against.

The new system was prompted by a damning report by former national ombudsman Alex Brenninkmeijer, who said political divisions and power struggles were having too much influence on the city and damaging democracy.

Amsterdam replaced the borough councils with locally-elected borough committees which had fewer powers but still controlled a budget after the government ordered it to phase out a layer of government.