HEREFORDSHIRE Council’s investigation into bullying claims at Ledbury Town Council remains shrouded in secrecy.

Despite a Freedom of Information request from the Ledbury Reporter, voters are being given barely the scantest detail about an inquiry that is of fundamental importance to maintaining trust in local democracy in Ledbury.

Last month, Herefordshire Council confirmed that that two local councillors found guilty of bullying town council staff, following a town council investigation, had been cleared by a Code of Conduct investigation.

But the town council said its own investigation, concerning complaints of bullying against Cllrs Liz Harvey and Andrew Harrison, was correct under employment law; and guidance from the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) and ACAS was followed. The town council investigation upheld the complaints.

Because of these two very differing outcomes, the Ledbury Reporter recently launched a Freedom of Information request to clarify the situation, and a number of questions were put to Herefordshire Council, to help ascertain the thoroughness or otherwise of the Code of Conduct investigations.

The Reporter asked: "Were the investigations into the bullying accusations sufficiently comprehensive, or were they cursory?"

Herefordshire Council replied: "Herefordshire Council does not hold any recorded information which details whether the investigations were sufficiently comprehensive or whether they were cursory."

The Reporter asked: "How long did the investigations take?"

Herefordshire Council replied: "1 year and 19 days."

The Reporter asked: "Were the town council staff concerned interviewed?

Herefordshire Council replied: "Information concerning how the investigation was conducted, including whether anyone was interviewed and if so who, is contained within the external investigators' reports into the matter."

But the Herefordshire Council response adds: "Information contained within the report as legal advice has not been previously disclosed to a wider audience and so is still considered confidential."

The Reporter asked: "If the investigations were cut short, why were they cut short?

Herefordshire Council responded: "Two investigation reports were received - an interim report and a final report - and on the basis of those findings, no further investigation was carried out."

The Reporter requested sight of the evidence seen by the Monitoring Officer, including emails.

Herefordshire Council responded: "Disclosure would be to the detriment to the process of the Monitoring Officer dealing with complaints, which requires some correspondence to be sent that is private."

Finally, the Reporter asked to see the formal reports into the investigations.

Herefordshire Council responded: "Information contained within the reports as legal advice has not been previously disclosed to a wider audience and so it is still considered confidential.

"The outcome of the report was that there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct, and therefore the public interest in unsubstantiated complaints is diminished."

Both the questions from The Ledbury Reporter and the Herefordshire Council responses have been edited, for reasons of space.