LEDBURY council taxpayers will have to wait a little while longer to discover the outcome of the Judicial Review brought by Cllr Liz Harvey against Ledbury Town Council. The judge, Justice Sara Cockerill, is still in the process of writing up her report.

But is has been widely reported in the media in the past that whoever comes out on the wrong side of the judgement could potentially end up facing a legal bill as high as £140,000 which, in the case of the town council, could come from the public purse, or possibly from insurance.

A spokesman for the Cardiff Civil and Family Justice Centre, where the Judicial Review took place on Tuesday, April 17, said the completion of Justice Cockerill’s report could take a few weeks more, and at present no judgement could be issued.

But the information from the Centre does scotch rumours in Ledbury that the hearing was actually postponed again.

An earlier hearing was indeed postponed, because of wintry weather.

The town council is yet to release any statement concerning the judicial review.

But there has been a statement on the Crowd Justice crowd-funding site from the former town councillor, Richard Hadley, who set up the crowd-funding drive on behalf of Cllr Harvey.

Mr Hadley wrote, on April 18: “Yesterday we had our day in court. We are content that our legal team gave a good account of our case and we are hopeful that we shall not have to wait long to receive Mrs Justice Cockerill's judgement.

“Whichever way the judgement goes, this will be an important clarification of the law as regards the proper process by which councillors may be held to account concerning their behaviour.”

So far, just over £5,000 has been pledged by 79 supporters towards a stated target of £30,000, to help cover Cllr Harvey’s legal costs, if necessary.

The Judicial Review looked into the processes followed by Ledbury Town Council in finding two town councillors, Cllr Liz Harvey and Cllr Andrew Harrison, guilty of bullying staff.

Cllr Harvey, but not Cllr Harrison, launched a legal process last year, against Ledbury Town Council.

The town council procedures that found Cllr Harvey and Cllr Andrew Harrison guilty of bullying staff were under employment law; but a separate Code of Conduct investigation, by Herefordshire Council found that neither Cllrs Harvey and Harrison had been in breach of the Code, which covers how councillors must treat others.

Ledbury Town Council did not oppose the granting of permission for the judicial review