A Newport Town Council committee meeting was made unofficial this week - after only three of the 12 members turned up.
Chairman Tim Nelson was left desperately phoning around at Wednesday night’s Leisure and Environmental services meeting in a bid to make up the numbers.
Apologies were sent in from counillors Sian Walker and Glyn Gratton, while borough councillors Eric Carter and Adrian Meredith were on borough council duty.
But with town mayor, Councillor Roy Scammell, the only other member present, Councillor Nelson was forced to try and find two more to make the meeting quorum.
Councillor Dan Ashley did then half-an-hour late after not receiving the agenda.
But he was the last to walk through the door meaning the quorate of at least four members was not met.
The meeting did take place but was un-minuted.
Town clerk Lee Jakeman said at the meeting: “We have two options here, we can postpone the meeting until tomorrow night and get more councillors along to make the quorate.
“Or we can carry on with the members that are here tonight and discuss items of note on the agenda without minuting them.
“But we cannot make any decisions for approval and we cannot formally recommend budget pages.”
Committee chairman Councillor Tim Nelson said: “We could adjourn to get more members present but since we can have an informed discussion about the allotments and the budget we can report back at the next full town council meeting.
“All seven of the members of this committee are in the full town council, so they cannot complain if we take a couple of minutes to go through what was discussed.”
Members agreed to carry on with the unofficial meeting with chairman of the Newport Allotment Association John Tyers joining the discussion.
By Sam Pinnington