Lump it, not like it. Political control?

5th JAN 2026

On Monday 8th December 2025 it came to pass, at the Full Council meeting of Ross-on-wye Town Council, that councillors were discussing "the recommendations to abolish the Management Committee and resintate the Mayor’s traditional role".

So what’s this all about then, what is the Management Committee and how did the conversation go down in the room?

It got political.

Cllr Julian Utting seems to have a little more control of the council more than others, as the chair of a rather contentious 'Management Committee', the existence of which only his fellow Lib Dems seem to be truly happy about. The Management Committee does away with the bulk of Full Council meetings, which would usually be chaired by a Mayor. It seems to be a rather unusual arrangement.

Talking on the subject of the Management Committee and its meetings, Chair Cllr Julian Utting said to everyone present “As the chair of the management committee and you’ve kindly voted me in every year since it was introduced”.

Does everyone really support him though? Or is he guaranteed the perpetuation of his position by his Lib Dem chums who hold the majority of the seats on the council so will certainly have the collective ability to vote through or vote down what they want? As the debate unfolded in the room on the night there were sighs and sideways glances, an indicator of the lack of unity in the council over how it operates with this Management Committee.

Should the council should go back to the regular way of operating?

A few years ago, back around when an independent councillor was given the role of Mayor, the Lib Dems were behind the idea to have a “Management Committee”, which was duely voted into existence through by their 'majority', changing the way that key meetings operate in the Town Council.

However, it’s said the decision went against advice, and was a rather frictional and controversial issue at the time (more on that in a bit) and it appears it has remained polarising ever since.

Cllr Julian Utting’s financial skills are well-known and well-respected across the councillors. The hugely positive opinions of his financial acumen are often voiced in meetings. However, chairing meetings where all councillors attend doesn’t require financial skills.

It seems that pretty much all councillors are quite easily capable of chairing meetings, a great many have the management skills required, and therefore pretty much any Mayor could lead as required. For example, in this 8th December Full Council meeting, the Mayor Linden Delves displayed calm leadership, although there seemed to be some irony on his part regarding the topic of the Management Committee - he said on the matter “I’ll stay neutral”, but when it came to the vote of whether there should continue to be one, he didn’t abstain as he might have led people to expect, he voted to keep it.

Was the creation and the perpetuation of the Management Committee a grab and grasp to retain all political control, to eliminate the oh-so-worrying risk that an independent or other non-Lib Dem Mayor could Chair significant meetings? (Remember at this point that a meeting's Chair also holds a deciding vote should any of the votes in that meeting be split).

Locally, the Liberal Democrats limped home 4th in the 2024 General Election here, which must have been hugely disappointing. They also went on to lose in both their attempts to win the recent pair of by-election seats on the Town Council in 2025 despite their huge electioneering efforts. They delivered more leaflets for their candidates than any other party or candidate did, including using external help, one of them even released a promotional song on the town's public, in support of one of their party's candidates.

After all the discussion and debate in the room there was a vote on whether to keep the Management Committee....

Guess what? ALL 7 of the majorty holding Liberal Democrats in the room voted in favour of keeping it, and absolutely nobody else did - with 6 against and 1 abstaining.

It was a close-run vote statistically then, just one abstention away from being split.

At the bottom of this article you can watch a Youtube video of the discussion and the voting. Half way through the video you can see how those present got to hear from the last independent Mayor...

The only relatively recent independent non-Liberal Democrat Mayor, back in Covid times, Cllr Daniel Lister appeared saddened when he took his turn to speak, and his contribution seemed to cut through the pro-management committee viewpoints in the room.

Cllr Lister talked about how roles within the Council should be shared, so that all councillors get the chance to make a difference. He referred councillors to how HALC had not recommended the council form such a committee, and how he’d sat in meetings with the then Clerk of Ross Town Council "in tethers not only with the way we’d been treated". He talked of how it was "a horrible experience", and told everyone in the room "it was done [the Management Committee put in place], as I have said before, for political reasons to gain the control", a comment to which there was no push-back or challenge.

Cllr Lister also talked of “caveats” when he was Mayor as a result of the political control. What those conditions might have been was not clear.

Cllr Lister said of the Management Committee arrangement, "currently I agree, it is working, BUT it is working politically" and recounted how "we are pushed out of projects" - a shame if this is true as Councillors are voted in by the public and if their input is stifled by others then can they fully and fairly represent the people who put their faith in them?

Sooooo, after some lively discussion and despite some councillors who were fans of the Management Committee keenly trying to paint it in a positive light, the sentiment in the room was far from united, in fact NOBODY outside of the Lib Dems who’d concocted the Management Committee voted for it to continue… a case of lump it, not like it for everyone else.

Another thing learned by the public in attendance is that no sub-Committees at all on Ross Town Council have a NON-Lib Dem Chair in place either, despite a desire to take up those roles. Speculation could be that it has been decided by the majority ruling party that a Lib Dem colleague is the best for every such job, although it would of course be unclear as to whether that would be as a result of political affiliation or on merit.

There was one other adrenaline-inducing moment in the meeting though that had all heads turning...

With the agenda items and topics of the evening moving on, suddenly there was a loud interruption. Aggressive banging on the door had everyone turning around and the atmosphere in the room tensed up. Terrorist threat? Drunks trying to break in? What was going on?

The knocking was certainly extremely loud. Bravely, someone went to the door, only to find it was Cllr Dan Ciolte (Lib Dem) urgently knocking on the door in the style of someone who was panicking that they were about to miss a hugely important vote he’d been summoned to. He rushed in to sit down.

The vote was just 1 away from being split. Will the Management Committee be able to continue in future? 2027 is time for the elections again. Could the topic of a the existence of the Management Committee come up again in future if the 'majority' becomes no more, or switches to another party?