POLICE declined to investigate concerns that important Ledbury town council documents may have been spirited away, citing an absence of "hard evidence".

But Ledbury's new town clerk, Angela Price, has suggested that problems in finding papers may have been down to "poor record keeping" during the previous administration.

One of the most divisive and controversial claims following the fall-out from last year's judicial review, which the town council lost, was that documents relating to the legal tussle may have been deliberately removed from the records.

At a full town council meeting in July 2018, former town councillor Richard Hadley publicly asked the then town mayor, Cllr Nina Shields, about "progress on recovering missing documents, and deleted emails".

Also in July 2018, an article in The Reporter revealed that town council documents had apparently been seen in Ledbury Cemetery, awaiting disposal.

But former town mayor, Bob Barnes, strongly denied that any documents relating to the judicial review were missing.

Speaking at the time, Mr Barnes said: "There are no missing documents; all the minutes regarding the handling of the complaints process, and the subsequent introduction of protective measures, were presented to and approved by full council."

Concerning the cemetery documents claim, Mr Barnes said: "All I know is that some obsolete equipment and old papers were removed from the office attics; a staff member was seen, by two citizens, taking this rubbish to the cemetery for disposal.

"So began the bizarre rumour the evidence was being destroyed by former councillors and staff; it has even been reported to the police."

Further light on this situation has been provided by town clerk, Mrs Price, who was appointed earlier this year.

She said: "“During 2018/19 the council did experience difficulties as a result of previous poor record keeping. There were a number of documents which might have been expected to be in existence but could not be found.

"The then Cllr Shields, accompanied by another councillor attended a meeting with the police to clarify whether or not these were matters which should be referred to the police."

But Mrs Price added: "However, given the absence of hard evidence, she was assured these were not matters requiring police investigation."

The judicial review was brought against the town council by Cllr Liz Harvey, the current chairman of the finance committee. She was not chairman at the time of the judicial review.

As the losing party, the town council paid a legal bill of £220,000, with £100,000 of that coming from the listed building reserves.

As reported in last week's paper, there was no formal record of the cash transfer from the listed building reserves, although a council minute existed to "agree that the funds would be used".

Mrs Price said the matter was quite in order.

She said: "I would confirm that all proper protocols and procedures were followed with regards to the decision to make payments as a result of the judicial review.”