A COUNCIL meeting had to be abandoned after only dealing with three items on its agenda, despite lasting almost three and a half hours, after a number of councillors walked out.

The planning committee at Darlington Borough Council was forced to end before it had considered all the items on the agenda after five councillors left, which meant the meeting did not have enough members to make legally binding decisions, known as being inquorate.

The situation has raised questions over the efficiency of the planning meeting structure, which allows applicants and objectors to comment at length, often more than once.

The premature end to the monthly meeting was greeted with anger and disappointment by members of the public who had waited more than three hours to have their say on the fourth and final item on the agenda, a planning application for a new bar on Grange Road.

The meeting started at 1.30pm with a depleted committee after a number of members registered their absence.

Two planning applications were debated at length before two members left for personal commitments, reducing the number of committee members to six.

The third item agenda, to consider outline planning permission for three houses to be built on vacant land on the outskirts of Hummersknott School, on Edinburgh Drive, sparked a heated debate, at the end of which three councillors decided to leave.

Cabinet member David Lyonette was one of the three to leave, which he said was to attend another meeting, starting at 5pm.

He said: “It’s disappointing that it was inquorate after I left because there was another planning application to consider. If people knew that then it probably would not have happened.

“The first two applications took more than two and a half hours. There were a lot of people allowed to speak.

“I’m disappointed with the way things went. I left at 4.50pm to attend a meeting that started at 5pm. I was expecting planning to be done by 3.30pm.”

Committee chairman Paul Baldwin was unavailable for comment.

A council spokeswoman confirmed that all decisions taken before the meeting came to an end are valid but declined to comment further.