A DAMNING report has laid bare the Malvern Hills Conservators’ shambolic handling of a row about the popular St Ann’s Well Café.

It reveals that: •A personal dislike of tenant John Redman influenced attempts to have him removed •He was offered £50,000 to walk away from the business •There was no clear plan about what to do with the café even if they were successful in removing him.

•Conservators did not understand what they were legally entitled to do, and what they were not.

The revelations come from the conservators’ own internal committee of inquiry.

Cafe tenant says he feels fully vindicated

THE tenant at the centre of the high profile St Ann’s Well dispute says he feels fully vindicated by the findings of the report.

John Redman, who has run the café for more than two decades, believes the findings show he and his supporters were right to fight all along.

He said: “I think it’s not just for me for but all the members of the public that asked questions and supported me – 6-7,000 people chose to disagree with them on Facebook.

“I would like to thank the inquiry committee for all the work they have put into producing this report, the general tone of which I find encouraging.

“It is very pleasing to see the report recognises there was no substance to the unfounded criticisms of the way my staff and I run the café.”

He said he was now looking forward to working with the new Conservators director Stephen Bound, adding: “We feel fully vindicated by the report even if we don’t agree with it in its entirety.”

Those doubts centre on how the inquiry can find that there was no breach of trustees’ duty by the Conservators involved, while at the same time identifying ignorance, negligence and prejudice. The chairman of the inquiry committee, Carl Attwood, says in his report that the process was never intended as a “witch-hunt” or to incriminate individuals, but to identify weaknesses in the Conservators and propose ways of improving their work.