A VETERAN town councillor says more transparency is needed about eye-watering payments the town council is making from the public purse, after it lost a judicial review.

The call comes after the town council revealed it had used reserves to pay out £219,925 in legal fees and is planning to shell out £7,000 more from the public purse.

Cllr Tony Bradford spoke out after his formal requests to have the paperwork included as an agenda item for a finance meeting this week were apparently overlooked, despite being minuted and published online.

Cllr Bradford said: "Who did not read the minutes to see my request? Why did this happen? I haven't got a clue. It's very disturbing.

"I'm trying to find out what is going on. We want to know. It's called transparency."

The High Court ordered the town council to pay costs after the council lost a legal battle with Cllr Liz Harvey.

The court revealed this week it had set no specific final total for the repayments; but information supplied to the Reporter by Cllr Harvey shows an interim payment of £30,000 from the town council to her solicitors was ordered by the court.

Cllr Harvey said she had personally made "strenuous efforts to be as open as possible" and before the court case she had offered settlement proposals to the council, which were rejected.

She said: "My offers to settle were taken to be signs of desperation and weakness rather than my attempts to prevent the public purse from being further denuded in defending indefensible action."

As previously reported by Reporter, the town council received conflicting advice about the wisdom of defending itself in the Judicial Review, but still went ahead.

Following the review, the two parties were instructed to sort out the payment of legal costs between themselves, and under this arrangement, any costs paid from the town council to Cllr Harvey or her legal team must be "reasonable and proportionate".

Direct contact between The Reporter and the High Court in Cardiff, where the Judicial Review was heard, has revealed that: "The final Court Order does not state an amount of costs."

Cllr Harvey was awarded costs but chose not to seek damages from the town council, otherwise the figures being paid out could be even higher.

So far, £219,925 of public money has been paid out by the town council in legal fees, with £96,261.66 going to Cllr Harvey's solicitors.

And there is the possibility of more payments to follow, which the chairman of Ledbury Town Council, Cllr Nina Shields has confirmed the town council is "minded" to pay.

An ongoing assessment could lead to more council tax payers' money being paid to Cllr Harvey, for legal expenses she occurred before the launch of the Judicial Review, but relating to its cause.

Cllr Harvey said: " I have submitted a request to the town council that they consider reimbursing me the costs of the legal advice I was forced to take in early 2016 as a direct consequence of the council failing to follow the correct process for the handling of the staff complaints, and by attempting to make me subject to a staff grievance process which has no authority or relevance to individual councillors.

"This request was made back in the summer and amounts to a sum of £7,005, including VAT."

Concerning Cllr Bradford's request and the missing agenda item, Cllr Shields said: "I suspect that with the volume of work, making this a specific item has just slipped off the agenda. We have a Full Council meeting in early December and we can put it on that agenda."

Cllr Bradford said: "I'm sorry, this is just an excuse. Cllr Shields is saying the office is inefficient."

Cllr Harvey took the town council to Judicial Review after being sanctioned, following accusations she bullied staff. She strongly denied the claims and was cleared by a Herefordshire Code of Conduct investigation, before the Judicial Review.