SORRY is supposed to be the hardest word – but not at City of York Council.

Officials are to rethink how they log absences from meetings, after complaints that councillors who failed to submit their apologies were reported as having done so.

The council’s Conservative opposition complained after a Labour committee chairman missed a meeting without any warning.

Tory councillor Chris Steward said: “To compound the situation, the unadopted minutes of the meeting stated that his apologies had been received at the meeting, which was not the case. I assume the Labour councillor, who’s paid an extra allowance for chairing the committee, forgot to show up.

“I am sure most residents will find it unacceptable that when a committee chair goes AWOL it shows in the minutes as an authorised absence.”

He said it was the latest “in a long line of administrative glitches” by Labour.

Andy Docherty, the council’s assistant director for governance and ICT, said: “It is routine to mark councillors who have not attended meetings as having given their ‘apologies’ simply to denote their absence, whether or not they have contacted the council in advance.

“We are aware of the concerns raised by the Conservative Group and will be looking at how we can improve our processes in the future.”

The council’s Labour leader, Coun James Alexander, said the Conservative group leader had also missed a meeting earlier this month, and had to be summoned by phone.

He said: “Silly political attacks like this need some context.

“It is petty squabbles like this that turn people off politics.”