A SOUTH Herefordshire village has a parish council again after being without one since June.

All councillors and the clerk of Madley Parish Council resigned at the start of the summer.

But following last week's elections two parish councillors were elected - David Williamson and Margaret Harkin.

Mr Williamson said he was elected parish chairman at the first parish council meeting, which was attended by the two ward county councillors.

He said: "Subsequently four residents have agreed to be co-opted to the parish council at the next meeting, thus giving a team of six which I believe will form a strong working team initially. Madley can have up to nine parish councillors and, in due course, we may move to this."

Ward councillors have been temporarily performing the parish council duties since June.

The mass resignation took place after councillors said they had had enough of parishioners not understanding what powers the parish council actually had.

Mr Williamson said: "To the future, my emphasis will be on serving the needs of Madley residents in an open and welcoming manner and to this end my new team will be very light on vested interests, be it land holding or established businesses.

"Clear and widespread communication will also feature, particularly understanding that many residents have no access to electronic methods."

He said keeping the village clean and tidy will be important and getting best value for taxpayers' money.

Cllr Williamson added: "There is clearly much to do, but I am already very encouraged by the early responses to myself and the embryo administration - a welcoming of a new team suggests that complete change was long overdue."