Ledbury Town Council labelled a 'circus' after changes

Councillors Tony Bradford and Ewen Sinclair said they 'haven't had a clue what was going on' at the council since the decision was made to suspend all its committees, except resources. 

At its full council meeting on August 1, the town council decided to  cover all business from September onwards through full council meetings, which will now occur every two weeks. 

A town council spokesperson said this was done because not all councillors appointed to committees have been attending those meetings resulting in there being insufficient members to enable them to proceed.

But Cllr Bradford and Sinclair were both against the idea. 

Cllr Bradford said: "If you think about the amount of work the environment and leisure committee was overseeing, as an example, I am worried that without these committees, we won't be able to keep our fingers on the pulse. 

"The council has become a circus, the only committee that has remained is resources, which is made up of the chairs of the three committees that now don't exist.

"The resources committee should be open to all members now to give us our voice."

Cllr Sinclair added the council was 'completely dysfunctional' adding since there have been hardly any meetings since the decision to suspend committees was made, he hasn't had a clue what was going on.

A Ledbury Town Council spokesperson said: "This change will last only as long as it takes either to be in a position to delegate decision-making on in-year programme delivery to committees or for there to be enough councillors co-opted onto the council for committee business to be delivered with confidence.

"Each fortnightly meeting can cover whatever the necessary business is that is required to be conducted across all committee remits, thereby speeding the pace at which action can be taken.

"The good news is that the recent change to fortnightly full council meetings means that Cllr Sinclair and Cllr Bradford can play an active part in every decision being taken as they are each still members of the full council.

"It is not unusual for council to have a recess during August, except the planning, which was held mid-August. 

"No councillor need feel unsighted on council business as all meetings are published publicly on the council website and circulated to all councillors for their information."

The spokesperson added the resources committee was limited to the three chairs appointed to each of the committees plus the mayor and deputy mayor for 'sound business reasons'.

These include limiting the circulation of sensitive information and ensuring best practices when handling confidential and staffing matters.