A TOTAL of 25 council meetings have been cancelled by Borough of Poole since the new administration took over - leading to claims that democracy is being undermined in the town.

Since May more than two dozen meetings have been cancelled under the Tory administration including eight overview and scrutiny committees, where councillors who are not members of the cabinet can call in decisions, and seven area committees - which are arenas for voicing local needs.

Reasons given include a lack of business - particularly after 'information only' items were dropped from meetings - but some councillors have said they didn't go ahead despite their attempts to add items to the agenda.

Among those cancelled was this month's Children and Young People's Overview and Scrutiny committee - which fell just days after the publication of the Key Stage Two test results which revealed primary schools in Poole are among the worst performing in the country.

Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Brooke, who previously served in the committee, accused Cllr Mike White, cabinet member with responsibility for education, of 'failing in his duty' for not reinstating the meeting to discuss the situation. "It is going to take real drive and urgent effort to sort this out - having meetings cancelled is not good enough," he added. "The work of the council in terms of scrutiny just isn't happening - and I think there is a deliberate element within it."

Also cut were the Hamworthy area committee meetings - despite the requests from the Poole People's Party councillors to put items on the agenda.

Cllr Mark Howell said: "Three consecutive area committee meetings have now been cancelled, and residents are being denied the opportunity to put forward questions in public forum as a consequence. This is undermining the democratic process."

Cllr Janet Walton, Leader of the Council, Borough of Poole, said summer months, particularly post-election, were "a quiet period" which had been used to train the 18 new members. Chairmen could cancel meetings if there was no formal business.

She added: "Over the next few months we will be adding in additional committee meetings to scrutinise proposals as they come forward."

She said additional meetings of the Children and Young People's Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be scheduled so the calendar includes the same number as originally planned, adding: "Since the election, we have established a cross-party working group to scrutinise education results in detail, they will be meeting in September and providing regular reports to subsequent committee meetings."