A GROUP set up to review policies for dealing with severe weather and floods looks set to be disbanded - because its members failed to turn up to meetings.

Darlington Borough Council agreed to set up the group in July to look at how well its action plans worked and how they compared with other authorities' policies.

Last year's floods affected a number of spots in the borough, including Neasham, where villagers have been badly hit twice in the last six years, most recently in June 2000.

When the council's monitoring and coordination group set up the severe weather and flooding review group, its work was expected to last until December, but this was later extended to March next year.

However, when its first meeting took place, on October 15, the group's lead member, Councillor Lee Vasey, was the only one present, out of eight councillors selected for the review.

A list of matters were discussed with council officers and made the subject of a progress report.

However, at the second meeting, on October 29, even Coun Vasey failed to turn up and the meeting was cancelled.

A meeting of the council's public protection and community partnerships scrutiny committee will hear on Thursday how a report to the monitoring and review group is recommending the disbandment of the review.

A council spokesman said: "We have approved policies and procedures to deal with severe weather and flooding. We have them in place and they have been activated effectively, linking in with the emergency services and the Environment Agency.

"The terms and references of this review group were to examine those arrangements that we have, see how we perform against other local authorities and look to see where improvements, if any, were needed."