Members of Dartmouth and District Chamber of Trade have rejected a bid to cancel its limited company status.

At the chamber’s first meeting in over a year on Wednesday, the proposal, put forward by outgoing chairman Dave Cawley, was rejected by three votes to two, with five abstentions.

Mr Cawley had earlier told members at the extraordinary general meeting in the Guildhall that the chamber had been receiving tax bills and fines.

A plea for officers to come forward was answered by Paul Reach, a former chairman of the chamber. There were no other volunteers.

The extraordinary general meeting was called after the Chronicle reported in May that the chamber’s three directors, Mr Cawley, Roger Jordan and Stephen Freeman, had all quit in January, leaving the limited company with no directors.

There was no official confirmation by the chamber of the resignations at the time – nothing on the chamber’s website or its Facebook page – and it appeared that the last time the chamber had held a members’ meeting was at Dartmouth Yacht Club on June 26, last year.