Scarborough Town Council Elections – May 2025
Today’s highly-informative article heralds the return of “Stormin’ Norman” – Alderman (and former SBC Councillor) Norman Murphy (a present incumbent of the beleaugered Newby & Scalby Town Council), shedding much-needed light in the future democratic arrangement for central Scarborough.
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In 2021, North Yorkshire Council (NYC) announced that the County and District/Borough Councils were to be scrapped and replaced with a single Unitary Authority covering the whole County of North Yorkshie (barring City of York Council). The new Council would deliver all public services in the County from April 2023.
There was, however, the small problem of democratic accountability in both Scarborough and Harrogate to be considered. With the demise of Scarborough Borough Council, five wards in Scarborough – Castle, Falsgrave & Stepney, Northstead, Weaponness & Ramshill and Woodlands (see above map), as they had no Parish Councils, would have no political representation at the local level.
Therefore,North Yorkshire Council (NYC) – as the new Unitary Authority was to be named – decided to embark on a quest to establish a Scarborough Town Council (STC) covering the five unparished wards, to fill what is commonly known as the “democratic deficit”.
Now this task should have presented no problem to NYC, as there are numerous examples of perfectly acceptable Town Councils all over the country. Moreover, the nature of the area to be parished suggested, quite obviously, that a fifteen member council spread over the five wards, three members per ward, would be the sensible solution. However, true to form, NYC contrived to make a pig’s ear of the process.
The first proposal NYC put forward, which was completely unworkable and would have been a nightmare to administer, was to create 15 single-member wards. Predictably, nobody liked this idea and so a bit of an impasse arose. To overcome the problem, NYC (in their infinite wisdom) decided to consult local elected members and residents and their favoured option was five wards with three members in each ward.
This option was not at all to NYC’s liking, so in order to get the result they wanted NYC formed a “Working Group” to establish how the proposed Scarborough Town Council (STC) would be established.
Needless to say, the Working Group membership would be heavily loaded in NYC;s favour:
The Working Group will consist of:
- 4 members of the Conservative Group;
- Councillor Stuart Parsons (North Yorkshire Independents Group Leader);
- Councillor Eric Broadbent (Labour Group Leader);
- Councillor Bryn Griffiths (Liberal Democrats Group Leader).
However, despite the bias in the Working Group membership, even these numpties could see that the best model would be five wards, each being represented by three Councillors – i.e. 15 councillors in total.
And so, much to the disgust of NYC’s leadership, this was the proposal put forward and accepted by members.
However, this did not suit NYC, who still favoured their 15-ward proposal with one member per ward! So out we go to consultation again. (Keep asking until you get the result you want!).
LOCAL DEMOCRACY
In the meantime, some kind of local Council had to be formed, said NYC. Scarborough, it was deemed, should maintain its Borough status which entitled it to have a Mayor. However, as there were no existing Parish Councillors, the five Scarborough wards, plus, for some unknown reason, Eastfield, would be made “Charter Trustee” areas.
This Charter Trustee status was necessary, NYC claimed, as it would:
“protect the historic property and traditions of the area. Charter Trustees have no power in respect of providing services to residents and the trustees may carry out ceremonial functions only.”
So who would these Charter Trustees be I hear you ask? Well predictably they would be drawn from the numpties – the usual suspects who won Council seats at the previous local elections.
- Councillor Eric Broadbent – Northstead (Labour)
- Councillor Liz Colling – Falsgrave (Labour)
- Councillor Janet Jefferson – Castle (Independent)
- Councillor Rich Maw – South Cliff (Labour)
- Councillor Tony Randerson – Eastfield (Labour)
- Councillor John Ritchie – Woodlands (Labour)
[pictured left-to-right, alphabetically]
This incompetent bunch of nobodies would now embark upon the NYC gravy train as Scarborough Charter Trustees. They, of course, did nothing and have done nothing; all creating Charter Trustees accomplished was to create more jobs (and pseudo kudos) for the boys and girls.
Indeed, now back in control of Scarborough, the six Charter Trustees wasted no time in securing their places on the gravy train. They would choose, from within their own ranks, a Mayor and Deputy Mayor, posts they would share out between themselves, until the Charter Trustee fiasco was abolished.
However, the Charter Trustees were going nowhere fast and they persuaded NYC to allow them to remain in existence, “until such time that a new town council is created which would then assume these civic functions”.
Needless to say, perhaps, working on the “Turkeys Don’t Vote for Christmas” principle the Charter Trustees said nothing about creating a Town Council, or indeed anything else for that matter, preferring instead to quietly ride the gravy train to its final destination.
A TOWN COUNCIL IS BORN
Nonetheless, a Scarborough Town Council (STC) had to be established and after several years of debate, multiple delays, and more than £90,000 worth of ratepayers’ money spent on consultations, Scarborough’s unparished areas would finally get their own Town Council.
At a full meeting of North Yorkshire Council, in May 2024, members were presented with the final report on the creation of STC. The new Council would come into effect on 1st April 2025, with the first elections to be held on 1st May 2025, for a reduced term of 2 years.
And the model chosen was, you guessed it, that there “should be 15 councillors elected to the new STC and that the number of parish councillors to be elected for each ward shall be as follows: Castle 3 Falsgrave & Stepney 3 Northstead 3 Weaponness & Ramshill 3 Woodlands 3”.
After nearly four years of wrangling and an expenditure of over £90,000, the original model, proposed way back in 2021, was finally accepted by NYC.
As for the price of democracy; residents of Scarborough should, once again, brace themselves. A Council report anticipates that the budget of the Town Council: “could be between £1m and £1.5m per year, which would be funded through a precept added to council tax bills”.
It is difficult to be precise as to how much this will cost each household in the STC area. However, accepting that there are approximately 30,000 eligible voters in the STC area, it seems feasible that there will be approximately 15,000 rateable properties (working on two voters per property).
Therefore, it seems likely that the 15,000 eligible private property owners in the STC area, working on the £1.5 million estimate wanting to be raised, will pay, approximately, an additional £100 per annum in Council Tax (Precept).
Many people all over the country don’t feel that local elections matter and this is borne out by the very low voter turnout, sometimes below 10%.
However, as you can see, it will matter to all of us in Scarborough in May 2025, when a potential £1.5 million will be taken out of our pockets and put at the disposal of the STC we elect.
My advice, therefore, is to be sure to consider carefully how you vote next May. Villas in Tuscany don’t come cheap and you can never have enough of the Dolce Vita, as our current Prime Minister can testify.
Indeed, as the former great leader of SBC, Labours’ Steve (“It’s a dog’s breakfast”) Siddons used to say before allegedly flying off to his villa in Italy, “Arriverderci, Suckers”.
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