HEREFORDSHIRE Council will not publicly account for what it has spent on legal actions involving the River Wye.

Council chairman Peter Harling told members that the sum is 'quite rightly' classified as exempt information.

And the sum seems set to rise. As the council rubber-stamped an attempt to settle outstanding river-related litigation, its legal team was landed with an amended High Court claim prolonging proceedings and pitching more parties into the fray - including Hereford City Council and the Left Bank Village Limited.

The long-running actions involve interpretations of the river's historical rights and charters, a legal labyrinth that Frank Barton, a veteran of the river-rights fight, claims could have cost the taxpayer, to date, as much as £500,000.

But Councillor Harling, as council chairman, would not confirm a figure when questioned by Councillor Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes over the matter when the full council met last Friday.

Members were being asked to approve a settlement deal sanctioned by cabinet in secret session.

That deal would cover all litigation arising out of fishing and other rights relating to the Wye that the council inherited on assuming unitary status in 1998.

The new defendants, named in the latest application, each lay claim to an interest in land or water use rights.