FORMER mayor Ann Thomas and fellow councillor Jack Anderson have been disqualified from Haverhill Town Council for failing to attend a single meeting in the past six months.

However, the fate of the duo has come about as a result of unavoidable and unfortunate circumstances in their lives.

Mrs Thomas, who served as deputy mayor in 2005/6 before subsequently becoming mayor the following year, was with the town council for six years.

She fell foul of the disqualification rules – which require councillors to attend at least one full council or committee meeting within a six-month period – after attending just three full council meetings between May 2007 and November 2008, and none since April.

Mr Anderson, who was elected to Haverhill South in May 2007, has since only attended four full council meetings, most recently in May.

Mrs Thomas, who represented Haverhill North, now spends most of her time caring for her elderly parents in Richmond, Surrey, who are both in poor health, meaning she has little time to undertake her responsibility as a town councillor. She has also resigned from HAVO (Haverhill Association of Voluntary Organisations) after 14 years.

She leaves the town council with more happy than sad memories.

"I was a bit vocal at times but it's no good being a town councillor if you are not willing to put your head above the parapet sometimes," she said.

Just one month after being elected to the town council Mr Anderson, 62, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, although the disease is now under control following seven-and-a-half weeks of radiotherapy, treatment saw him gain four-and-a-half stone.

He has also been diagnosed with Paget's Disease, which damages cells in the bones, and next week will have to undergo an operation on his spine at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

On leaving the town council, Mr Anderson, who remains a St Edmundsbury borough councillor, said: "There's no point in me doing something if I can't do it properly – if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it right."

The vacancies were advertised and the closing date for Haverhill South is November 26. Unless ten electors request a by-election for each ward new councillors will be co-opted.