A fire authority meeting was cancelled after several councillors did not turn up during while firefighters protested against cuts outside the meeting.

Only five members of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority showed up for the meeting, which is fewer than the required number for it to proceed.

The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, July 15 amid a rally by the Fire Brigades Union against the authority’s plans to cut the frontline budget by £1.6 million, which took place outside their headquarters in Eastleigh.

However, it was cancelled due to the absence of six committee members. Of the 11 total members, only five were present.

Councillors who are unable to attend a meeting are usually required to send their apologies to the democratic services team, which records these absences.

A minimum of six councillors must be present at the meeting. If not enough members can attend, the meeting will either be postponed or rescheduled.

In this case, after waiting for over an hour, the meeting was declared cancelled.

Councillors Rhydian Vaughan, David Harrison, Zoe Huggins, George Madgwick, and Louise Parker-Jones attended. This was one member short of the six necessary for the meeting to proceed.

The democratic services received apologies for absence from councillors Fran Carpenter, David Drew, Stephen Parker, and Roger Price.

“Other members of the authority were unable to attend on the day and did not provide apologies to the Governance or Democratic Services Teams,” the council said.

The absent members were councillor Sally Goodfellow from Southampton City Council and councillor Karen Lucioni from the Isle of Wight.

At the meeting, the fire authority was set to approve its annual ‘modern slavery statement’ and discuss property transactions made by the authority.

This includes leasing parts of the Cosham fire station to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, which will generate an annual income of £97,500.

The paper also included a licence for Portsmouth City Council to install airspace monitoring equipment on the drill towers at fire stations in Cowes, Ryde, and Gosport, resulting in an annual income of £5,600.

The meeting documents also referred to leasing an annex in Eastleigh to the OPCC, generating an annual income of £15,500.