Policing partnerships are meant to help the police work with locals

Only two out of nine members turned up for the meeting in Sandy Row community centre on Tuesday.

DPPs are made up of councillors and residents to work with police in meeting local policing needs.

Deputy Lord Mayor Pat Convery of the SDLP, who chairs the overall Belfast DPP, apologised for the cancellation.

"This is the first time that this has happened," he said.

"We have to remember that this is August and there are people taking late holidays."

He said he had received apologies from some of the members who had not been able to attend due to late work commitments.

It is an anomaly - normally our meetings are extremely well attended by our members Naomi Long

"On this occasion it has sent out a negative message but this is not what we are about," he added.

Alliance councillor Naomi Long said car trouble had prevented her attending, but said previous meetings had been poorly attended.

"It is an anomaly. Normally our meetings are extremely well attended by our members," she said.

She said that public attendances in the east of the city had been good and that they were trying to increase numbers and ensure a cross section of the community could see DPPs "could change policing in their area".

"We are trying to vary the times, locations and themes of the meetings to try and encourage more (public) participation," she added.

District policing partnerships were set up across Northern Ireland under reforms initiated by a commission headed by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten and implemented by the government.

The partnerships are made up of councillors and members of the local community, who work alongside the Police Service of Northern Ireland's 29 District Command Units in trying to meet local community policing needs.