Complaints! What really happened?

12th JULY 2025

Come on then, what was really going on in recent weeks when complaints about Ross-on-Wye Town Councillors hit the papers?
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Well, the first thing to understand is there were TWO buckets of complaints, which were quite distinct from each other. One bucket was launched by a Liberal Democrat Town Councillor. The other separate bucket was a member of the public deeply unhappy or disturbed by something, intrigued? You betcha.

You might have assumed complaints are always something the miffed public does, starting with the likes of "Dear Points of View, I was most perturbed at last week's episode of Springwatch with Bill Oddie" - but oh-no, in this case a Town Councillor was also firing off complaints about colleagues on the council, using official processes towards them. OMG, what had they done? Well, apparently what they'd done, was nothing wrong.
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Ooooo…. exciting stuff… this all sounds so very 'small-town big-drama'… so come on then….
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The short version:
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A Liberal Democrat Town Councillor launched complaints about 4 of the only 5 non-Lib Dem Town Councillors on the Council. They inferred that their colleagues had broken the Code of Conduct on three separate points - but it turns out they hadn’t done that and the complaints were all rejected requiring no further investigation.
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A member of the public put in a complaint that 11 Liberal Democrat Town Councillors had been partaking in predetermination. The key evidence they gave was a couple of photos they took of a Lib Dem document they had seen a Lib Dem councillor referring to in a meeting. The document was the minutes of a meeting the Lib Dem group had held, supposedly indicating that they had decided outside of a council meeting who would hold key roles, something they had the ability to do because they hold a majority on the council - but, these complaints were rejected because the photos were too blurry.
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The long version:
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Let’s see if we can un-yawn and unpick all this a bit more.
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Let's attempt to unravel things that the Hereford Times reported in a very undetailed fashion, and a front page Ross Gazette article that had people chattering over their morning coffees, sadly no longer outside Café Eleganza, a business the town sadly lost recently with the owners commenting about the lack of footfall in the town.

Before we get started, something’s worth clearing up quickly - in the following weeks since the headlines broke, we have seen false guesses that two council seats that have become available due to resignations that were linked to these complaints - the resignations weren’t, those resignations had nothing to do with these complaints and were weeks before any of this happened, and nothing to do with conduct either.
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So now we've had the trailer, let’s get into that longer version, you still have time to get overpriced drinks and popcorn at The Roxy foyer, and please turn your mobile phones off, relax, sit back and enjoy the sh*tshow…
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An unnamed Liberal Democrat Ross-on-Wye Town Councillor filed complaints against 4 out the 5 of the non-Lib Dem Councillors following the appointment of who would be the new mayor, deputy mayor and hold key committee chair positions, all voted for in a 12^th May 2025 meeting.
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Spolier alert - it’s speculated that the Liberal Democrat councillor who did this was likely to be Cllr Julian Utting, because it looked like he had been arguing with other councillors that the complaints were made against, in comments on a Facebook post following the 12th May Meeting, and it looked like their comments are most likely what was being complained about.

It looks like they alleged that the four councillors had broken the Code of Conduct on three separate points for comments they had made on social media. However, all the complaints were rejected by the Herefordshire Council Monitoring Officer, with no further investigation being required.
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It appears the Lib Dem councillor hadn’t tried to resolve the issue with those people beforehand, and instead launched official complaints, this caused distress to those being complained about, distress which could have been avoided and might raise questions over whether these complaints were reasonable. Maybe unnecessary?
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From the publicly available documents relating to the complaints we can see that an independent person looking into the Liberal Democrat councillor's complaints with the Monitoring Officer commented “‘I am surprised that the political division evident in these complaints is so significant at Town Council level” and went on to say “Perhaps of more concern is that these complaints appear to be from the majority against the minority. This may not bode well for future working of the council.” Hmmm, worrying stuff.
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Okay, let’s park all that for a minute and go look at this other ‘bucket’ of complaints…
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A completely separate set of complaints, had been filed by a member of the public, this was a set of 11 individual complaints against each of the Liberal Democrat town councillors.

The member of the public had said that there was a meeting of the Liberal Democrat group on 29th April 2025 held ahead of the council meeting on 12th May 2025, where councillors decided who would get key positions - that each of the 11 councillors seemed to be involved in predetermination of how they were to vote. It’s worth noting at this point that IF this was going on, then technically the group do hold the majority on the council and by all voting the same way, they could guarantee the outcome of votes.
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For those who’ve never heard the word predetermination, in this case it basically means making a decision or forming an opinion or decision in advance of a meeting, instead of considering all relevant information and arguments in that meeting.
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On 29th April 2025, the member of the public had seen one of the Lib Dem councillors referring to minutes of a meeting (printed out and in front of them on their desk) by the Liberal Democrat group on 29^th April 2025 and this they thought showed they had predetermined their votes for the May meeting, effectively controlling who would be able to have key roles on the council.
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The member of the public’s complaints were rejected. Their evidence relied upon photos they had taken of the document, but in effect the photos were deemed too blurry.
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For this bucket of complaints there are some other interesting questions…
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It certainly seems from Monitoring Officer responses that none of the accused councillors chose to simply supply a copy of those minutes to the investigation, something which certainly could have clarified if any predetermination had taken place.
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One councillor had referred to having the minutes with them in the 12th May meeting and said they had them in front of them as they had nothing to hide. Another separate councillor seemed to express how they would have been happy to have provided more information to the member of the public.
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Interestingly, one councillor we since asked if they would indeed like to share the minutes document, but they said they wouldn’t share it. They said the minuted meeting was about strategy for Ross-on-Wye, so it is unclear why they wouldn't share it.
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One councillor, responding to the Monitoring Officer about the complaint also seemed to indicate that in their Lib Dem group meeting, they had discussed who was suitable (and not?) to hold key roles on the council.
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Another feature of the responses to the investigating Monitoring Officer was that 7 out of the 11 of the Lib Dem group expressed how they thought the member of the public’s complaint was politically motivated one of them also describing it as “vexatious”.
It certainly seems that some councillors had felt that the member of the public was not acting alone.
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Looking to verify if there was any truth in this speculation by many of Lib Dem group, the three Independent Councillors (who made up three of the four subjects of the aforementioned Liberal Democrat councillor’s complaints) were asked about this and they have stated they “were, are, and remain unaware of what was in the member of the public’s complaints”. In addition to that, the remaining fourth Councillor also confirmed they had no knowledge of it either.
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In light of this confirmation, it would appear that the assertions of the 7 out of the 11 councillors were untrue, in turn meaning there was a possibility of the Monitoring Officer being led to consider a perspective that didn’t exist - perhaps they could have been drawn to think there may be some tit-for-tat going on? It doesn’t appear there was.
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Theatre lights fading up... there you go then, maybe that’s helped shed some light, the story, not the lights…
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So how does the council move forward, because this surely isn’t healthy right? The answer? Who knows? Are there political problems? Are there people problems? Hmmmm.
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Reflecting on this, what would it take for YOU to put in official complaints about your work colleagues for example? It’s something most people would never do? It does at least have the appearance of some issues in the council.
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Let’s face it, good basic principles of management are to work resolve issues with colleagues wherever possible, to reach understandings and work out how to move forward positively - hey, perhaps some training can be made available where needed?
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Upcoming elections…
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It’s hoped that new councillors for Ross East and Ross West, following upcoming elections in August 2025, will be able to be a positive force, and encourage colleagues not to launch complaints should they be unnecessary.

HALC, the Herefordshire Association of Local Council's have been promoting Civility & Respect lately, recognising the problems in the sector encouraging councillors to show respect by listening and paying attention to others, having consideration for their feelings, following protocols and rules, showing appreciation and thanks, and being kind.

It is unclear if any apologies have been offered.

Come back for lots more on those upcoming elections in August!

UPDATE: At a full council / management meeting on Monday 14th July (which was the first major meeting since the complaint outcomes), the council were to discuss procedures around Code of Conduct complaints, in light of what had recently gone on. The public weren't allowed in that part of the meeting, but what we do know is two councillors had got up and walked out looking very unhappy with what had been going on inside! - it raises questions on why they upped and left, was there poor behaviour that caused them to suddenly leave? Were they fed up? What happened?

‍Want to read the complaint outcomes for yourself?
You can download them below in two .zip files:
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Complaints made by a Lib Dem councillor (zip file with 4 outcomes)

Complaints made by a member of the public against Lib Dem councillors (zip file with 11 outcomes)
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