THERE has been a public demand to see legal opinion which led to Ledbury town council wrongly imposing sanctions on two councillors, following accusations that they had bullied staff members.

The demand came from former town councillor, Richard Hadley, at last week's annual meeting of the town council in the Community Hall.

Mr Hadley explained he had "inevitably" been dragged into the situation, because one of the accused councillors, Andrew Harrison, was his partner.

And because the town council is now facing a legal bill of around £200,000, after being on the losing side in a judicial review, Mr Hadley said Ledbury people had a right to see the town council's legal advice, because the cost to each household could be in the region of £50.

The claim can be made because the money could come from town council reserves, which is public money, or from cash raised through the council tax levy.

Mr Hadley said: "If we go right back to the start of the process, we were told by Cllr Annette Crowe there was incontrovertible advice about the justice of the grievance procedures. Are we going to see the legal opinion? Please can we see the legal evidence? There is no reason why we, as the electors, cannot see it."

Ledbury town council's new chairman, Cllr Nina Shields, said she was not prepared to make a decision that evening, nor give a definitive answer there and then.

But she agreed that the town council "should be more open".

She added: "My view is, we have spent the town's money and the town deserves to know the wheres and the whyfors."

Mr Hadley then asked last year's deputy mayor, Cllr Keith Francis, if he had seen the legal opinion.

Cllr Francis said the legal opinion was still with the solicitors but was referred to in the judgement from the recent judicial review, which was brought by Cllr Harvey against the town council and which found that the sanctioning process was "substantively unfair".

Cllr Francis said of the legal opinion: "I was assured by Cllr Crowe that the legal opinion existed. I trust people. If they tell me something, I believe them.

"I have been re-assured by others that it does exist."

Former mayor Cllr Crowe was not present at the meeting because she resigned recently from the town council.

Mr Hadley said the matter of the town council's legal advice was the thing "upon which everything else hinges," and it was important because each household had a £50 stake in seeing the legal advice given to the town council.

Cllr Liz Harvey and Cllr Harrison were accused by fellow councillors of bullying staff and banned for almost two years from speaking or voting at committee meetings.

But a Code of Conduct investigation by Herefordshire Council found that neither Cllr Harvey nor Cllr Harrison had been in breach of the code, which governs how councillors must treat others.

However, the sanctions remained into place and were even extended into second year, while Cllrs Harvey and Harrison were given no proper opportunity to challenge the accusations.

Both councillors always vehemently denied the accusations of bullying.

A legal bill of £200,000 would substantially drain Ledbury Town Council reserves, unless the sum can be met by an insurance pay-out, still to be agreed, from the Herefordshire Association of Local Councils and/or the National Association of Local Councils.

The town council has claimed in the past that both bodies gave indemnified advice.