This is what caused councillors to resign in Herefordshire

Councillors Bob Puzey, Elizabeth Jordan, Sian Newbert, Guy Smith, Bridget Vine, Chris Barron tendered their resignation from Walford parish council last month.

They say one of the catalysts was the lack of information over why the neighbourhood development plan was pulled from a meeting just 24 hours before it was due to be discussed at a meeting in August.

Sian Newbert said resigning was a difficult decision to make.

MORE NEWS Experts reveal the reason behind a boom in home sales in Herefordshire

“I did it with regret because I first became a councillor last year and I had been quite active and committed to doing my bit for the community.

“We had been on the council for a year and things weren’t improving. We weren’t debating things properly and information wasn’t readily available to all councillors.

“Generally, we didn’t know what was going on a lot of the time and when we made requests for information, we didn’t always get answers.”

“What was a catalyst for my resignation was the way the NDP had been handled.

“Decisions had been made, I felt, outside the public domain about how it should progress.

“To my mind, council decisions are to be made and voted on in the public domain, but I don’t think that was happening.”

Chris Barron, who was on the NDP steering group, said the plan was being brought to a stage by which the council could review it.

He said the council had been provided with progress reports at each meeting and they had so far held four public consultation.

A total of 157 people had attended the most recent consultations.

MORE NEWS Coronavirus in Herefordshire: School staff member and pupil test positive

“All the documentation, as it was being produced, was published either on the parish council or NDP specific website and all meetings were open to the public.

“The NDP had progressed to the point where an independent consultant had undertaken a review of all the development sites that had been offered.

“There were 34 of them and they have all been mapped and circulated publicly so that their locations are known.

“And this document looks at each of the sites in turn and assesses their potential viability for inclusion in the NDP.

“It had been agreed by the steering group chair, the chair of the parish council, the vice chair and the clerk to present it to an extraordinary meeting of the parish council.

“That meeting was scheduled to be held on August 12.

“24 hours before that meeting was due to take place, the chair of the parish council withdrew the item from the agenda.

“There was no discussion with councillors. It was removed on the basis she had consulted with the chief executive of Herefordshire Association of Local Councils and taken advice that there were potential irregularities with the documentation.

“The object of that extraordinary meeting was a presentation. There were no decisions to be made.

“The document would have been presented and passed to councillors who would then have however long they required to look at it.

“Then at a subsequent parish council meeting they would be asked to give their views on how to proceed on any public consultation and ultimately what options for development sites should be incorporated into the NDP.”

RELATED NEWS Mystery over resignation of six local councillors

Guy Smith said there was something wrong at the council as eight parish councillors had resigned since November.

“It’s not just the NDP. The whole way the NDP was pulled to a halt is quite indicative of how the council has been running.

“I was considering resigning before the issue with the NDP, but it was the thing that pushed me over the edge.”

Ms Newbert said: “The NDP would have been a very good thing for the parish. We live in a very sensitive area, a large part of it falling within the area of outstanding natural beauty.

“It was such a good NDP and it was so important and supported that we are all at a bit of a loss.”

Walford parish council has been approached for comment.