Mood Swings - Look, play nice or we'll go home!

12th FEB 2026

Oh dear, meetings at Ross-on-Wye Town Council really are a bit worrying lately - what displays of touchiness and grumpiness have we seen?
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Imagine some background music as you read, maybe the gallery music with Tony Hart? (Here, pop it on in a new tab, sit back, and read on).
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Cllr Julian Utting, one half of a keenly-political family duo thinks the spending is fan-dabi-dozi despite seemingly getting quite regularly cranky and moody lately in meetings.
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The same goes for the supper-obsessed Cllr Chris Bartrum who’s also been one to appear trigger happy to dish out mini-lectures should anyone talk at the same time as him. Councillor B’s reference for how long meetings go on seems to be his stomach and whether he’s late for tea. Which ponders the question - if he’s snappy and bringing it up in meetings that he hasn’t eaten, perhaps he could eat before meetings? How did the snickers advert go, “you’re not you when you’re hungry” (with Joan Collins playing a short-tempered diva in a sports changing room here, you remember it).
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Cllr Ed O’Driscoll has continued to upset people, chairing a recent CMT meeting where it’s said he looked like he struggled to be polite and respectful to a member of staff and a councillor.
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Are things not all happy on the decks of the good ship of the majority party? Cllr Sarah Freer seems to be the most impulsive in recent days to answer on social media, jumping to the defence of decisions - albeit often with logic that misses deeper context that matters, context that has already been voiced, and that others seem to grasp already.
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Is there dissension in the ranks in the LDs? Perhaps getting some backs up further? One councillor had pretty much admitted the party as having a 3 line whip in Ross Town Council. They were reputed to have said to another councillor how furious they were that Cllr Louis Stark didn’t toe the line in recent votes.
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Cllr John Winder looks a bit sheepish when voting like Stark against the party tide (not that it’s too regular an occurrence). It’s almost as if there’s a wrath to be incurred for such insurrection as having a different opinion on a topic to your party bedfellows. It must take a bit of backbone to do it, it’s admirable.
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Cllr Daniel Lister is apologising when he hasn’t done anything wrong, a hallmark of being plain nice. Sometimes he appears a bit broken by the output of others, recently declaring to another “I don’t believe you”, but Lister is nearly always a voice of reason.
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Cllr Milly Boylan is bearing up under glares of disdain towards her that seem to continue. Last year those holier-than-her had previously met and decided her not suitable for the public facing mayoral role. Will she ever give up in the face of what looks like steadfast resistance to anything she suggests or champions? It doesn’t appear so, but her exasperation is worn clearly on occasion.
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Cllr Dan Ciolte, who once came out of a council meeting and asked a member of the public “are you angry that I shouted at you earlier?” (surely without realising what he’d just said) seemed to have a somewhat agitated tone in another recent meeting.
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Cllr Bev Pope is still looking for a 3rd thing to say - at the moment sometimes a broken record with contributions which approximate to “we must think of the environment” and “we mustn’t forget how successful we are with grants”. That’s probably a bit of a disservice, because sometimes she will interject with some pseudo-philosophical reminders of how the council should act nicely together, although be it delivered at a primary-school-esque level - but does she he need to heed her own advice sometimes?
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Cllr Richard McEvoy looks on in increasingly exuberant attire, recently he attended council dressed like a version of The Joker in Batman but finding very little to laugh about, maybe stunned at the chaos that the movie character would be getting off on.
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Oh and don’t forget Cllr James Vidler who finally said something the other day, but everyone was so taken aback that he’d made a noise that no one seemed to take in what he actually said. If the audio was better on the council's own recordings, attendees might be able to go on a refresher. Luckily meetings are often recorded independently and more clearly, on equipment which is rumoured to have cost less than 5% of what the council spent on theirs.

Cllr Valerie Coker is frustratingly dealing with still being quizzed on oh-so-important mechanics about the new order that mayors be chosen, however she remains stoic but direct. Could she be left wondering if this system is open to being gamed or undermined? Surely nobody would hope to do that? Well, time will tell.
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Cllr Michelle Setchfield is much more chirpy and talkative than ever before, coming out of her shell, but consistently voting inline with the political peers she’s sat sandwiched between.
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Cllr Katie Fowler sits with an air of incredulity, stunned that she has to keep reminding people of essential projects that have to be done as ‘emergencies’ but haven’t, and how in one example the council is about to spend more money on yet a third survey, to scope out work that should have been urgently remedied after the first one, and of course the second one. Surveys are expensive - and it’s money wasted that’s come out of the pockets of Ross-on-Wye Council Tax payers.
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Poor Cllr Saskia Harrison is surely wondering what she’s let herself in for? It must be surprising how, now and again, common sense and being reasonable doesn’t count for much in a council.
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Oh well, through the moodiness and discord, meetings always come to an end - remember, this is a town council that has spent your money on expert training to improve behaviour. Why should that even be a thing? Well, it is.
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There’s a lovely little retired lady in the corner that keeps popping back to observe proceedings as a member of the public and she often sums things up quite succinctly - she leaves council meetings sometimes reviewing the behaviour she’s witnessed with one word: “disgusting”.