LEDBURY Town Council will meet this evening (Friday) and decide whether to fight a potentially very costly Judicial Review, linked to the on-going row over the alleged bullying of staff by two councillors.

At stake could be the future health or otherwise of the town's public purse, as provided by council tax payers.

One of the accused town councillors, Liz Harvey, instructed her solicitor to submit a "pre-action protocol" letter to the town council last Friday (July 21) ; and the town council has been given a deadline of August 4 to accept it had no power to investigate the bullying complaints; that the decision by the town council to prevent Cllr Harvey and Cllr Andrew Harrison from participating in committee meetings should be reversed, and that neither of the councillors was guilty of a breach of the Code of Conduct.

Posting a copy of her solicitors' letter on the Town Talk: Ledbury Politics site, on Facebook, Cllr Harvey said: "Read it and weep.

"This followed councillors refusing to set aside their extension of the banning order against me and Cllr Harrison during Thursday's Full Council meeting (July 20) when the council was required to note that all the complaints made against us by councillors, staff, staff members' relatives and local Conservatives had been dismissed as being without foundation."

She added: "These councillors now play with residents' money to continue their personal feuds."

The letter states it is a "proposed claim for judicial review against Ledbury Town Council" on behalf of Cllr Harvey.

Town clerk, Karen Mitchell said of this Friday's meeting: "The council will decide what it is going to do and what legal response this requires."

She said a Judicial Review would look at the process the town council followed, under Employment Law, to find Cllr Liz Harvey and Cllr Andrew Harrison guilty of bullying staff.

She added: "It's all about the process, not the outcome."

But if the council fights and loses the looming legal battle, it could cost local council taxpayers as much as £140,000 in costs, far more than the £10,000 it cost the council last year in legal fees associated with the bullying row.

Meanwhile, following a mass investigation of Ledbury Town Council by Herefordshire Council, after multiple complaints, not a single town councillor, in fact, has been found in breach of the Code of Conduct.

Ledbury's mayor, Cllr Elaine Fieldhouse, made the announcement at last week's full town council in the Community Hall, revealing that no breach had been found following the investigation of 39 separate complaints.

Town clerk, Karen Mitchell said that more complaints may have been received, but 39 complaints were investigated and ten councillors were subject to investigation, including Cllr Liz Harvey and Cllr Andrew Harrison who referred themselves to the Code of Conduct investigations, after being accused of bullying staff.