HEREFORDSHIRE Council has revealed that a complaint to the Monitoring Officer, concerning conduct in public office, has been made against a member of Ledbury Town Council.

At present the adjudication of the complaint has not been made public.

But the Reporter has been informed that the complaint was made about Cllr Richard Hadley, who was a town councillor at the time of the complaint, but resigned his seat on Monday evening, April 13.

Mr Hadley confirmed: "The monitoring officer has upheld a complaint by Ledbury Deputy Mayor, Rob Yeoman that I did not treat him with due respect and courtesy.

"I have already publicly apologised to him and am happy to do so again."

Mr Hadley said the ruling was not a a "substantive factor" in his decision to resign.

But he added: "My concern as a town councillor was to ask questions and to have discussion and debate, and I met with a brick wall."

Cllr Hadley will not be standing for re-election on May 7, and on the social media site, Facebook, he expressed concern that news of his resignation had been revealed in public before it was set to be announced at this week’s Full Town Council meeting, on Thursday, April 16.

He cited disrespect from town councillors as another reason for standing down.

Mr Hadley said of the “leaked” news of his resignation: “It shows a brazen lack of respect for the rules, and for common decency, one of the reasons why I have decided to turn my back on them for now.”

News of Cllr Hadley’s resignation was reported on Facebook in advance of the full town council meeting, by Cllr Jayne Roberts.

She wrote, on April 14: “Thank you Rich for attacking the laggards in the town council, you have resigned from the council after achieving little.”

However, when pressed for further information about the adjudication, a Herefordshire Council spokesman said: “The Monitoring Officer, having sought the views of the independent panel members, has made a decision regarding a standards complaint received in relation to Ledbury Town Councillor Richard Hadley.

“The outcome has been communicated by letter to both the complainant and the subject member. This concludes the complaint. The complaint and decisions are not a matter of public record – although if either the complainant or subject member elects to make it public that would be their respective decisions.

“Complaints that have been adjudicated informally i.e. Monitoring Officer decision following consultation with independent panel members are not published.”