A LEDBURY town councillor is to be reported for "bringing the town into disrepute", following a plea she made for no red white and blue bunting to mark the Queen's birthday and Armed Forces day.

The annual town meeting last week included the closing remarks of outgoing mayor, Cllr Annette Crowe, who used the occasion to strongly criticise the conduct in office of fellow town councillor, Liz Harvey.

In front of a crowd of around 70 local residents, Cllr Crowe said Cllr Harvey had "lost touch with the feelings of the majority of Ledbury people", and she made a special reference to the "Buntinggate" incident where Cllr Harvey had made her plea for no red, white and blue bunting.

Cllr Crowe said: "She made statements in full council, in front of the press, pleading with us not to have red, white and blue bunting. Her comments have brought the threat of a far right group who have threatened to come to our town to protest."

Because of this, as voted for shortly afterwards at the meeting, Cllr Harvey is to be reported to Herefordshire Council's monitoring officer, under Code of Conduct procedures, for "bringing the council into dispute".

At the meeting, Cllr Crowe also said that Cllr Harvey had threatened individual town councillors with legal action if the investigation into staff bullying accusations against herself and Cllr Andrew Harrison did not stop.

In an email sent by Cllr Harvey to fellow town councillors on May 19, and seen by The Reporter, Cllr Harvey wrote: "It is possible that councillors may also become personally liable.

"Decisions you have made have taken this council down a path which opens it, and you possibly personally, to risk of court action and large financial claims for costs and damages."

Cllr Crowe said that Cllr Harvey had also "threatened to take this council to Judicial Review, if we did not stop the process".

Cllr Crowe added: "This could cost the council and its ratepayers hundreds of thousands of pounds. All of this to stop us looking into the bullying allegations as its our duty as employers."

Cllr Crowe, also at the meeting, said Cllr Harvey had also threatened to make a powerful objection to the town's neighbourhood plan", which would waste the thousands of pounds already spent on it, - currently standing at £21,025, according to information given to The Reporter.

Cllr Crowe, at the meeting, said: "If the plan is thrown out, does she really have what is best for Ledbury at heart?"

In the email of February 14, again seen by The Reporter, Cllr Harvey does indeed warn Cllr Crowe of an objection to the neighbourhood plan, but did not say that she would actually make it herself.

Cllr Harvey, in a email expressing concerns about the process and progress of the plan, said: "As things stand, when the time comes there will be a massive and high profile objection to what you eventually produce.

"This is not just public money you are wasting - you are also damaging the town and putting its future at risk."

Cllr Crowe, at the meeting said: "The new neighbourhood plan working party is steaming ahead and we are now planning the next consultation.

"Hopefully it will be completed and ready for submission early next year."

Cllr Harvey did not directly respond to Cllr Crowe's claims during the meeting.

But afterwards she said of the Code of Conduct complaint against her: "The motion should not have been discussed in public. Such allegations should always be confidential until they have been determined.

"Cllr Crowe’s actions in holding this discussion in public are vindictive and spiteful. Cllr Crowe is a public servant and should be abiding by due process rather than continuing to use her powers in the dying moments of her mayoralty to further pervert the operation of the council.

"These additional complaints are yet more evidence that this council is off the rails and spiralling out of control."