AT the heart of the rumpus of last week's full town council meeting in Ledbury was the claim that a £7000 payment to a consultant was "an unauthorised payment".

The payment was made to Neighbourhood Plan consultants, Foxley Tagg, for consultation work connected with the Neighbourhood Plan.

Former town councillor, Richard Hadley, made the allegation during his "resignation speech" in the Market House, on Thursday, April 16, and said the payment was "an unauthorised payment, outside of financial regulations and paid retrospectively".

Mr Hadley criticised the mayor, Cllr Bob Barnes, for the way he had handled his concerns.

Mr Hadley believes that his concerns about the payment have not been fully met and his questions have not been sufficiently answered.

His concerns about the payment were echoed this week by Ledbury town and county councillor, Liz Harvey, who said: "I am clear in my mind that the original commitment to procure consultant support outside of the existing work packages of the contract was pure accident. What I am more concerned about is the behaviour of those involved once the error had come to light."

She added: "When questioned on this, Cllr Barnes has chosen to treat the challenge as a personal attack on himself and his role as mayor - rather than the highlighting of a failure of procedure."

In a response to Mr Hadley, in February, Mrs Mitchell said the The Ledbury Town Council minutes of October 3 gave the Town Clerk delegated authority to approve any spending on the Neighbourhood Plan, within budget limits, and that the payment had been "endorsed by the Economic and Development and Planning Committee on November 13, 2014".

She said: "Budget discussions identified additional works together with sums involved, and an appropriate figure was added to the budget."

Foxley Tagg sent a letter dated November 7, in advance of the invoice, detailing additional works and costs.

A study of the minutes of November 13 does not list the Foxley Tagg letter as a separate item; but the second draft of the committee's budget for this financial years is a minuted agenda item, albeit without details, which is usual practice for town council minutes.

Mr Mitchell said: "The additional work undertaken by Foxley Tagg was necessary to

ensure effective Neighbourhood Plan consultation events and was authorised under delegated powers."

An Internal Auditor report, for the town council's financial year 2014/2015, does recommended that the budget for the whole Neighbourhood Plan project should be reviewed, calling the existing budget "extremely tight", and the report also called for the project's management to be looked at again.

The auditor said: "I would urge the Council now to review the process for managing the plan and consider putting in place an effective project management process."

But the report also indicates that the clerk can make payments under delegated powers, to avoid interest due to late payment.

The auditor's report states: "The invoice from Foxley Tagg states that late payment interest may be charged".

The invoice from Foxley Tagg, dated December 22, required payment within two weeks.

The payment was signed by Cllr Barnes, chairman of Neighbour Plan Working Party, and Cllr Keith Francis, a member of the working party.

Mrs Mitchell and Cllr Barnes were both asked if they wished to update their response from February, but declined.