LEDBURY'S full town council meeting on Thursday (November 2) ended up by being suspended and cut short, after a councillor asked to be reinstated on council committees, following a year and a half ban, and then refused to sit down.

Ledbury's mayor, Cllr Elaine Fieldhouse, banged the chairman's gavel and asked Cllr Andrew Harrison to sit down on several occasions, but to no avail.

Cllr Harrison described the situation as "shocking and embarrassing".

Cllr Harrison, together with Cllr Liz Harvey, were banned from speaking and voting at the town council's committee meetings, but not at full town council meetings, after a town council investigation found them guilty under employment law of bullying staff.

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

Cllr Harvey, but not Cllr Harrison, has since launched a legal process which, if it goes ahead, will look at and rule on the processes followed in the matter by the town council.

If the town council loses the legal battle, it could cost the town council around £140,000, possibility from the public purse, and possible from insurance.

At the November 2 meeting, which was attended by around 20 members of the public, the flash point came when new councillor, Jane Hopkins, at her very first full town council meeting, was about to be voted on to the economic development and planning committee and the finance and general purposes committee.

Cllr Harrison stood up and said he should have been asked too and added that, in his view, based on minutes, the ruling which banned him from committees ended this month.

Cllr Fieldhouse repeatedly asked him to sit down and said he should ask his questions afterwards, in closed session.

Councillors decided to suspend the meeting and, after the decision, both councillors and the public vacated the Community Hall at Lawnside, where the meeting was being held.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Harrison said: "I felt compelled to stand my ground after a year and half being banned for something for which I was found innocent of by Herefordshire Council's independent investigation."

In Cllr Harrison's view, the ban on him speaking and voting at committee meetings "was from meeting to meeting, and not to be ended subject to review".

He added: "There was the possibility of review, but no certainty."

Minutes concerning the ban says it will run "until the November meeting of Ledbury Town Council in 2017, when the matter may be reviewed".

More to follow.