A leaflet, produced by the Ross Liberal Democrats has been criticised for ‘cherry-picking’ information about three local Councillors and their attendance record at County Council meetings.

The leaflet states: “Top Tory attends just 13 council meetings in two years. It says that “Shock research by the Lib Dems has uncovered that one of our Tory County Councillors attended just 13 County meetings in two years.”

The leaflet equates this to £1,122 for each meeting attended. This figure is compared with Councillor Philip Cutter, at £733 per meeting and Councillor Jenny Hyde at £699 per meeting.

The three Councillors are also Town Councillors for which no allowance is paid. Cllr Cutter is Chairman of the planning and regulatory committee and Cllr Hyde is Cabinet support - Young people and children’s wellbeing. These extra responsibilities carry a larger allowance than the basic allowance paid to all County Councillors.

Councillor Richard Mayo told the Ross Gazette: “Due to the nature of my work I don’t attend many meetings at Hereford as they are always during the day, however I do work every single day as a county councillor for my constituents and to make Ross an even better place.”

Ross resident Peter Martin has written a letter to the Ross Gazette about the issue (see page 10 of this week’s Ross Gazette). He said: “I am much more concerned with who has achieved what, when, where and for how much outside panelled rooms, on our streets and with our services.” He added: “Beyond a clearly inflammatory effort at cherry-picking for outrage and effect, it falls apart immediately by offering near zero useful context.”