AN unusually short council meeting took place yesterday, lasting less than a minute.

Oxford City Council held its appointments committee meeting yesterday at 9am.

Council meetings across the UK can often last several hours, with one Cherwell District Council meeting this year stretching on for a whopping six hours as councillors discussed the new budget.

But as Oxford city councillors discussed the need to appoint a new chief executive officer at their meeting yesterday morning, they decided to hold what is called a private and confidential session.

This is when members of the press and public are kicked out of a meeting, usually because elected councillors are discussing something commercially sensitive like the salary of paid staff.

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The meeting's public portion finished after 46 seconds, just as council leader Susan Brown said "We now need to move in..."

It is assumed she would have said 'to private and confidential session' but the council's YouTube livestream then finishes.

The current interim chief executive of Oxford City Council, Gordon Mitchell is paid nearly £160,000 a year and is due to leave his post next April.