Conservative chiefs have warned party members they are missing too many Shropshire Council meetings.

In a private e-mail to party members Councillor Martin Bennett, secretary of the ruling Conservative group, warned members they were giving opponents ‘a stick to beat us with’ by ‘going Awol’.

He said it was embarrassing at a meeting when the opposition members outnumbered the administration.

Councillor Bennett wrote in the August 29 message, which has since been leaked to the Shropshire Star: “If you are unable to attend a committee meeting (regulatory, scrutiny, working group) then you must find a substitute and advise the chair of the meeting and committee services.

“It has been noted that recently there have been a number of people going Awol and this has in some cases given a perfect opportunity to the opposition groups to push their agenda and gives them a stick to beat us with in claiming that we cannot be bothered to do the work we are elected to do.

“It is embarrassing to go to a meeting and find that the opposition members outnumber the administration – as well as dangerous.”

Mr Bennett told any committee members to organise replacements if they were regularly unable to attend meetings.

The e-mail was anonymously sent to former Liberal Democrats councillor Peter Phillips, who represented the Bishop’s Castle area on Shropshire Council until announcing his resignation last month.

Mr Phillips said: “It’s pretty staggering when you realise there is usually only two or three opposition members on these panels and up to nine Tories.”

Mr Phillips said the person who had forwarded him the e-mail had withheld their name.

However Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow today said he had looked back through attendance records since the e-mail was leaked and had found pleasing results.

Mr Barrow said: “The e-mail shows we continue to look at attendance to make sure everybody turns up to every meeting.

“But when we look at the attendance figures they are pretty good across all the parties.

“The attendance right across the board really isn’t particularly bad. This e-mail was to gee up the members to make sure we get 100 per cent attendance, which we will always strive towards.”