SIX councillors resigned from Hazlemere Parish Council last night with one councillor saying he thought the council was "completely dysfunctional".

At the start of last night's monthly meeting six resignation letters from David Brown, Wanda Brown, John Rhodes, Karen Farrell, Duncan Sugg and Willie MacLeod were read out.

This leaves just six councillors, one of whom was not at the meeting last night.

Cllr Farrell said in her letter she joined the council to make a "positive difference" but said she realised not everyone on the council held the same view.

In Cllr Rhodes' letter he said a small minority of the council continue to criticise everything.

He said as councillors are unpaid the aim is to achieve something in the parish, but he said due to the way the council has been operating this has not been possible.

Cllr Rhodes said he tried to move the council forward but he did not expect to receive opposition from other members within the council.

He said he believed the council had become "completely dysfunctional."

Cllr David Brown resigned due to ill health.

Last month's full council meeting did not go ahead as not enough councillors turned up.

It was scheduled to be held under the Chatham House Rule, which would have provided anonymity for speakers.

The idea was championed by David Brown, who said it was brought in because members were unhappy with posts made about them and the council on Hazlemere Residents Association 2009’s website.

But it is legally unenforceable and the Free Press said they would continue to use the councillor's names in reports on public meetings.

Mr Brown's response to this was: "It’s all done on trust and if you did that, no-one would trust you and you wouldn’t get people talking to you."

Last night the remaining councilllors, Judy Weaver, Brian Mapletoft, David Thompson, Alex Slater and Natasha Howard ploughed on with the rest of the agenda. Alan Kenyon was not at the meeting.

Cllr Weaver took on the role as acting chairman and said: "This meeting will not be held under Chatham House Rules- we have never needed it during my 25 years on this council."

She later raised concerns that the people that had resigned had sensitive business contracts in their possession.

She added: "Everything should go through the office. It shouldn't go to private addresses."

The issue of the council's website also came up, as it is currently offline, as Cllr Rhodes ran the website.

Cllr Weaver said: "In the past I was always very mindful this should not be held by a councillor. "It should be done and held by an outside body."

It was agreed the website should not be run by an individual councillor.

Cllr Howard also said she wanted to tell Mr Brown tonight that he had broken the parish council's standing orders by threatening the press with regards to the Chatham House Rules.

Cllr Weaver said she hopes in the future the council can work more as a team.