WHAT'S happened to Herefordshire's 'rebel' parish councillors who caused a national stir last year with their stand against a Government imposed code of conduct?

A majority of such councillors serving Kingsland, Brockhampton with Much Fawley, Lyonshall and Huntington held out until the recent council elections.

It seems Government is 'going after' them. Even though most aren't in office any more.

DR John Bishop was establishment - deputy director to the UK Atomic Energy Authority renowned for his research into reactor fuel and holder of one of the highest civilian security clearances in the country.

At 78, when Dr Bishop should be settled into well-earned retirement at his rural Herefordshire home, the power of the state he served for 27 years has turned against him.

That power drives his prosecution - though he would say persecution - by the Standards Board set up to police Britain's parish councils.

It's a very English affair.

Until a matter of weeks ago, Dr Bishop was clerk and vice-chair to five-seat Brockhampton with Much Fawley Parish Council - among the smallest of its kind in the country.

Accountable

Size, though, didn't stop him picking a fight with Whitehall. They came to metaphorical blows over the code of conduct Government imposed on its grass roots almost exactly a year ago - specifically its requirement to publicly register councillors' interests and those of their families.

The code was about making parish councils and councillors - who work without pay, expenses or allowances - as accountable as their county and parliamentary counterparts.

Through The Hereford Times, Dr Bishop's stand - and those of other parish councillors across the county - earned national attention.

Now Whitehall won't let it go.

Having already faced its investigators, Dr Bishop is due before 'The Board' soon accused of not signing up to the code in full - even though he no longer sits on his parish council.

He has allegations of misconduct to answer as well, involving, according to his 'summons', the appointment of a friend as auditor, not declaring interests over 'unauthorised' payments to the parish hall committee and 'pushing through' a self-compiled statement of assurance for auditors.

Dr Bishop can't believe this is what parish politics has come too. He's not alone. Almost all of the county's parish council rebels - most of them no longer councillors - should come before the board between now and the end of the year.

Rodney Smallwood likens the process to being beaten by a rubber stamp. The one-time chair of Kingsland Parish Council and a high-profile rebel himself expects to be 'called' in July.

By then he will have dropped his much-publicised High Court application for a judicial review of the code.

A lawyer himself, Mr Smallwood heeded legal advice in opting to take the cheaper challenge and appeal against The Board's decision as an issue of 'democratic principle'.

Based on the previous pattern, that decision is likely to be a set term ban from holding public office. Though, like Dr Bishop, he doesn't hold office any more, and has no plans to do so again.

"What does it cost the taxpayer to repeat what's happening in Herefordshire across the country?"

Dr Bishop answers for the individual.

"As the Government machine rolls on over (lives) how many good people have parish councils lost?"