Weight watchers carried on regardless when they found their hall locked, writes Nigel Hanson.

They thought they would have to cancel their evening slimming class when they could not find the key to Headington Community Centre in Oxford.

But they had not counted on the ingenuity of stand-in consultant Caroline O'Neill.

She set up her scales in the community centre car park, turned on the lights of her Citroen Saxo car and it was business as usual.

In true British style, the 20 dedicated slimmers, aged between 16 and 60, including three new members, formed an orderly queue round her car.

In turn, and in the cold and dark, they took off shoes and coats to stand on the scales while Ms O'Neill read the electronic display with the help of the car's full beam lights.

The results were recorded on paper as the weights book was missing.

The emergency began after members arrived at the community centre in Gladstone Road.

Their usual Slimming World consultant, Cherie Dorman, had been taken ill, and Ms O'Neill who normally takes a Thursday night class in Blackbird Leys had not been given the key.

Ms O'Neill, of Hockmore Tower, Cowley, said it was the first time this had happened.

"Even the newcomers joined in the fun," she said.