A SPECIAL meeting of Ledbury Town Council's finance committee this week approved an internal audit of the council's finances.

The meeting had been called by the committee's acting chairman, Cllr Keith Francis, following a formal challenge from another councillor, Liz Harvey.

Cllr Francis had invited members of the public to come to the meeting to hear what the auditors had to say about the council's finances, but in the event, only fellow councillors turned up to the meeting on Tuesday evening.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Francis said: "The internal auditors' overall conclusion is that there is 'adequate and efficient' internal control of the council's finances.

"Their one recommendation is that the minutes of meeting where grants are approved should note the powers under which a grant is given, and this was approved."

He also said that the town council's external auditors, Grant Thornton, were also happy with the state of the council's finances.

He said: "Its wasn't a confrontational meeting. I had called it because there were concerns about the audits and I was determined that everything should be transparent and the public should be able to see what is going on."

Cllr Harvey said she was "dismayed but not surprised" with the outcome of the meeting.

She said: "I would expect the matter of risk, financial liability and the question of whether the council's governance framework is fit for purpose and its actions have been legal will come up again in the audit for 2016-17."