A VOTE of no confidence may be taken against a Bromyard councillor in relation to his position as vice-chairman of the Public Hall Management Committee.

At a special meeting of Bromyard and Winslow Town Council on Monday evening, councillors were critical of the past committee chairman and present vice-chairman, Richard James.

During the meeting, new chairman Martin Ganderton pleaded for financial assistance to help the committee repay £19,000 of an outstanding loan given by Herefordshire Council and taken out while Coun James was chairman.

"Unfortunately it is not yet possible to give an accurate statement of the committee's finances because no invoices have been sent out since March 31. The treasurer is actively trying to recoup outstanding money due to the Public Hall, but this is taking a great deal of time to unravel," said Coun Ganderton.

He outlined five solutions of how the loan might be repaid but it was decided to leave a decision until the next meeting of the town council on November 19.

Coun John Wilkins said: "This is a meeting we have anticipated for two or three years now. When we asked Councillor James information about the hall it was never available to us - almost deliberately not available. I am glad we are not being asked to vote on this tonight because I would probably have gone against it. I still want to think how the council stands to grant a loan of this sort."

Mayor Joan Dauncey was critical of Coun James for not being at Monday night's meeting.

"It seems that when awkward questions are raised, he doesn't appear. I am really sorry he hasn't come tonight because he could have answered questions," she said.

Coun Pearl Briggs asked: "Can we not have a vote of no confidence?"

Coun James told the Ledbury Reporter he had missed the meeting because he not been in the best of health and defended his record as chairman of the hall committee.

"As the town council's representative, if they were unhappy with the information I was giving them, why didn't they let me know and why did they keep electing me as their representative?

"Nobody can say that we hid the fact that we were short of money. We were always open and honest. The projected income said that there was enough money to repay a loan and there still is enough money.

"The finger points at me maybe because I was chairman, but there was a committee. The decision the committee made to get a new hall was the right one. It made sure Bromyard still had access to a public hall and was not loosing a facility it had always had."