A meeting of a shadow Dorset Council committee could have been forced to close early – had any councillor left before the end of the meeting.

So few turned up for the shadow overview and scrutiny committee meeting in Dorchester that chairman Cllr Trevor Jones had to warn that he only just had enough councillors to be quorate, asking each member if they had to leave early.

He said that seven councillors had apologies for not attending the meeting, the majority of them in the hour before it was due to start.

A letter will now be written to all committee members asking that if they have to apologise, to do so in good time, in case the meeting has to be cancelled.

Council officers who attended were thanked by the chairman for giving their time after normal working hours. They outnumbered councillors by a ratio of approximately 2-1.

Other meetings of the shadow Dorset Council have suffered similar attendance problems – resulting in leader Rebecca Knox to reduce the number of councillors needed for full meetings from a third to one-fifth of all councillors. She said at the time that she was just being pragmatic to ensure business could be legally carried out.

The decision was announced at the December full shadow council meeting which was concluded in just 32 minutes and attended by 96 councillors of the 172 entitled to do so.

Neither slot set aside for questions from the public, or councillors, was used and there was no debate about any of the agenda items.

Weymouth councillor Kate Wheller said at the meeting that she knew if there was a 6.30pm meeting in Dorchester there was every chance she could be back home by 7.30pm.

“ Every time I have been here, if we are asked to vote at all, its to rubber stamp an executive decision. Our views aren’t being sought at all and that’s why people are not coming…we should be doing everything we can to encourage people to turn up, not give them an excuse not to be here,” she said.