Phone problems

I discovered yesterday evening that I'd got a problem with my council phone. Unknown to me it was giving an engaged tone to people ringing in from outside. It was doing the same for me ringing out but I thought that was genuinely because the people concerned were using their phone. I'm not sure how long it's been misbehaving but today I had to collect a replacement handset and connect it up to prove that it wasn't the line at fault. Fortunately it was the handset and I'm now back on line. However, I discovered that 3 people had managed to get through to the voicemail service on it, two of them on Tuesday evening when I was in the same room as the phone and I'll swear it didn't ring! Very strange. Luckily the messages were ones which weren't urgent.
This afternoon was the first planning committee of the new municipal year. Perhaps because it was on Thursday instead of Wednesday, or perhaps because some people couldn't give a second day of the week to planning, it wasn't well attended. We were quorate but not full. It was also strange in having a very light agenda, considering how long it is since we had a meeting. It gave the opportunity for new committee members to feel their way in without too many problems and for the new chairman to stamp his mark on the committee procedures - looks as though it'll be more professionally run in the future though whether that'll make the decisions any better is up to the rest of the committee of course.