The democratic process is all very well but, quite frankly, it can be so boring.

Dismayed by the poor turnout at a series of public meetings to discuss the future of primary healthcare in its area, a health authority in Lancashire resorted to a tried and tested method of luring bottoms on to seats: bribery.

It worked. A meeting in the library at Leigh attracted a record audience of about 20, including 14 teenagers, each of whom was presented with a goodie bag containing a T-shirt, pen, mug - and a £10 note. The ploy was used at two other meetings, costing Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust more than £750 to buy a combined attendance of 75. Critics say that it could have been better spent on a more direct way of improving patient services.

Instead of joining the debate on the Fairness in Primary Care initiative, which aims to put more GPs into the community, the teenagers spent their time whispering to each other and texting friends on how they were going to spend their easy tenners: on a burger-and-fries party at McDonald’s.

Sandy Franzen, a local councillor, found himself sitting behind the youngsters. He said: “They were late teens. As the meeting went on I could hear them planning this party. Others kept asking ‘How much longer?’ and ‘When is it going to end?’.”

All became clear when, at the end of the meeting, he too was given a goodie bag with a £10 note in it. “Unlike me they must have known about the money in advance,” he said. “I remember thinking at the time that fast food wasn’t a very healthy thing to be thinking about at a health service meeting.”

The next day he tackled Peter Rowe, the trust’s chief executive.

A spokesman for the trust said yesterday that the teenagers, all from the local youth council, had listened intently throughout and one of them had even asked a question. He said that the payment was to cover out-of-pocket expenses such as travel.

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