A COUNCIL meeting was abandoned after its chairman became unwell and officials cleared the room.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council leader Jeff Cant had just opened the debate on the transfer of assets to Portland Town Council this morning when he needed support from vice chairman Mike Byatt as he started to fall forward from his chair.

He had just spoken for more than five minutes at the borough's management committee outlining the background about why assets due to be taken over by Portland Town Council would not be transferred, but operated on licence, while legal papers were completed over the course of the coming year, completing the transfer process. He had shown no signs of being in any difficulty during his opening remarks but became unwell as Portland councillor Ray Nowak started to speak.

As officials cleared the room at the borough council offices in Commercial Road fellow councillor, local GP Dr Jon Orrell, went to assist Cllr Cant putting him the recovery position on the floor.

Members of the public and fellow councillors were kept in the building's reception area for 15 minutes until acting chief executive Stuart Caundle came down to say that the meeting was being abandoned as Cllr Cant was still unwell.

A statement issued by the borough council later confirmed that Cllr Cant had later been able to walk to an ambulance which took him to hospital for a check.

A spokesman said: “Cllr Cant was able to walk out of the building and head off to hospital in an ambulance to be checked over. Obviously we won’t be commenting on anything of a personal medical nature.”