Only 19 of the town’s 10,000 residents bothered to turn up for Ross-on-Wye’s annual town meeting at the Larruperz Centre on Monday.
Councillor John Edwards, who is to be inaugurated as mayor on May 11, said: “Out of an electorate of something like 4,500, it was a very disappointing turnout for a meeting at which the council has to provide an account of its activities to residents and ratepayers,” he said.
“Perhaps it’s apathy. Perhaps one could argue that the residents are happy with the way things are being run. As has been shown in the past, when people are worried or angry about something, they turn up in numbers. There are not a lot of contentious issues at the moment.”
He said it was the second year the town meeting had been held separately from the mayor-making. The first year was successful but this year it not proved a success.
“We will look at that in the coming year, and we might consider holding the two events together again, which might help increase the attendance,” he said. “It makes for a long evening, which is why it was decided to separate the two events. But a lot of people come along to the mayor-making. We expect a good turnout on May 11.
“No pressing issues were raised by the public so perhaps they are content with the way things are run. And the meeting was not well publicised.”