A Dorset council planning meeting had to be abandoned on Wednesday after councillors stopped for lunch and not enough came back.
The eastern area planning committee, meeting at Wimborne, was halted by committee chairman Cllr David Tooke immediately after the lunch break.
The committee had spent the morning discussing plans for a new Aldi supermarket at Canford Bottom which was approved – against officers’ recommendations.
The afternoon agenda was to have included a proposal for 95 homes on a site east of Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers and 48 new homes and a new village hall at Binnegar, Wareham as well as plans for a sustainable, natural green space.
Cllr Tooke said that with only five councillors present and six needed for the meeting to be quorate he had no option but to defer the items to the next available meeting, probably in October.
In closing the session, which was held at the Allendale Centre, he apologised to those who had logged in to watch online, or had attended the meeting hoping to hear the debate and decisions.
“I really am sorry, but there is nothing else I can do,” he said.
The morning session had been attended by seven councillors.
Officers, during the lunch break, had called other councillors living reasonably nearby to come along, but none were able to.
