TOWN MEETING/ASSEMBLY 6th JAN. 2025

• – an “In My View” article by NIGEL WARD, announcing a significant development in the mounting public pressure to hold Whitby Town Council to account in regard to its abysmal financial and governance performance in adminstering the Whitby Public Purse and the Council’s Public Record.

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At a monthly meeting of the Whitby Community Network (WCN) – now a formally constituted Community Interest Company (CIC), at the Whitby Rugby Club on the evening of Monday 16th December 2024, and following extensive presentations of the personal views of Whitby Town Councillors, members of the WCN and members of the public (myself included), the ensuing Q&As soon established the almost universal extent of public concern regarding the administration of Whitby Town Council in recent years.

Councillors were at pains, quite rightly, to make clear that the causes of concern pre-date the appointment of new Town Clerk/RFO, Mr Adam CHUGG – who took up his appointment only on 1st October 2024 and obviously bears no responsibility for circumstances prior to his appointment.

It was apparently not commonly-known that formal Objections to WTC’s last two years of Annual Accounts (both financial returns and governance compliance) have been the subject of scrutiny by the Council’s External Auditors (PKF LITTLEJOHN LLP), with many further Objections to the first part of the present financial year (the former Town Clerk/RFO’s last months of service) currently in draft form. These Objections will be published once released by the External Auditor.

Unfortunately, neither the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) nor the North Yorkshire Council Monitoring Officer (NYCMO) has powers to intervene in the affairs of Town/Parish Councils (beyond the utterly ineffectual Standards regime – 174 Code of Conduct Complaints between 01/04/23 and 31/03/24 – not one upheld).

One of the few avenues remaining to Electors and Precept-payers (Local Council Tax-payers) is to register their concerns under the terms provided by the Local Government Act 1972, Sched. 12, PART III, s.14-22).

In simple terms, this authorises a Call for a Town Meeting/Assembly, signed by a minimum of ten Electors of the Parish, at which Motions may be tabled, voted upon and passed as Resolutions to be set before Whitby Town Council – who, believe it of not, are perfectly entitled to take as little notice as they please.

However – and this is important – it sets public concern on the record. It draws a mark in the sand. And it might just shame some of the present members to recognise the plain fact that they have not performed adequately, or anywhere near that mark.

In consequence of the foregoing, a Call for Town Meeting/Assembly bearing the requisite number of signatures was presented to the Town Clerk/RFO on Tuesday 17th December, in good time to fulfil the requirements to confirm the Meeting/Assembly on Monday 6th January 2025 at The Royal Hotel, West Cliff, WHITBY, YO21 3HA at 6:00pm.

Below, readers will find the three Agenda Questions for the Meeting/Assembly (each followed by my personal commentary on the meaning and significance thereof):

QUESTION 1

My Commentary on Question 1:

NO. Certainly not.

It is clear from the deliberations of the Finance, Policy & General Purpose Committee meeting held on Tuesday 10th December 2024 (having been deferred to that date following the postponement of its originally-schedule meetng of 3rd December 2024 – due to inquoracy; i.e. insufficient members turned up) that THERE WILL NOT BE A 31.6% PRECEPT RISE, as the Clerk /RFO has been asked to persevere with the task of locating the data necessary to arrive at a more moderate and appropriate figure.

Indeed, it was a close call at the re-scheduled meeting on 10th December 2024 – where the incumbent Chair, Councillor Linda WILD did not put in an appearance – nor did the Town Mayor, Councillor Bob DALRYMPLE. Only by the attendance of Substitute members Councillor RIDDOLLS and LAYMAN, was the meeting able lawfully to proceed.

It is understood that a revised draft Budget will come before the FP&GP Committeee in early January (i.e. before the Full Council Budget Meeting scheduled for Tuesday 14th January 2025 (when Whitby residents would do well to attend), though nothing appears on the Calendar as of today’s date:

Councillor Sandra TURNER, temporary Chair of last Tuesday’s meeting, has called for nothing greater than a 10% INCREASE.

Councillor Chris RIDDOLLS suggested deferring attempts to ‘re-stock’ the massively depleted Reserves (please see my article: “WTC: Budget/Precept ‘Deferred’” ) in order to assure a ZERO INCREASE.

My own expectation is that it will be difficult for the Clerk/RFO – given the paucity of available data  – to return with anything less than a 14% – 15% INCREASE – but ‘sold’ to us by ‘the Old Guard’ as being only half as bad as we thought it was going to be (yet still sixfold beyond inflation – 2.3% end of October 2024). Didn’t they do well?

However, none of the foregoing negates the purpose of including Question 1 on the Agenda. The Question does not demand a reduction in the increase. It merely provides residents with the opportunity to comment on whether or not they find it acceptable to increase the Precept in the face of such poor or non-existant services at a time of an on-going ‘Cost of Living Crisis’. Does it represent Value for Money? Not in my book.

QUESTION 2

My Commentary on Question 2:

YES.

This Question 2 strikes at the very heart of the toxic, indeed spiteful, atmosphere infecting the Council over recent years. There has been a cadre of Councillors, generally referred to as ‘the Old Guard’, who have resisted all efforts mounted by the newer, smarter, more diligent and committed members to pull the Council back into line.

Some feel that ‘the Old Guard’ placed too much reliance on the competence and reliability of former Town Clerk/RFO, Mr Michael KING. Now that Mr KING has moved on to richer pickings as Head of Policy & Communications at the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC), what remains is a clean-up operation akin to the aftermath of a hurricane.

Others feel that the COVID era, with its ‘virtual’ meetings and ‘skeleton’ Agendas, led to a generally cavalier attitude to Council duties amongst many of the “in-betweenies” – those who do not know what (or how) to think and keep their fingerprints well away from the difficult decisions.

Following recent events at North Walsham Town Council in Norfolk, where External Forensic Accountants found massive financial irregularities, the public at the WCN meeting agreed that only expert and independent examination could hope to untangle the Whitby Town Council mess, especially given that there may have been an attempt to conceal key paperwork.

And then there is the matter of non-achievement. The Council accomplishes virtually nothing of value. There have been no discernible or visible benefits produced by the Council anywhere in Whitby.

At the Annual Town Meeting/Assembly held on March, the last question posed to the Chair (Councillor DALRYMPLE) by a member of the public was :

• • “What has the present Council actually achieved?”

I recorded the meeting. A screenshot of the waveform twixt question-end and answer-start is displayed in my GUI:

As can be seen, after 32 SECONDS of silent quacking, the Chair finally responded:

• • “Well. We instigated making a start on the Neighbourhood Plan”.

This would be little enough – even if it were true. But the fact is that it was the Whitby Community Network (WCN) that motivated this long-awaited action to produce a legal document without which any prospects of North Yorkshire Council pumping ‘double-devolution’ money into the town are miserable indeed. The WCN website even hosts the WTC coverage – https://www.whitbycommunitynetwork.org/whitby-neighbourhood-plan/ – yet the Chair/Mayor seeks credit for the efforts of others.

The WTC Neighbourhood Plan Working Group is Chaired by WCN’s Mrs Joyce STANGOE (herself a former WTC Councillor who gave up in despair), with a large part of the necessary research undertaken by Mr Andy JEFFERSON, also of the WCN, both of whom gave their time on an unpaid voluntary basis – unlike the paid-for-by-the Council (with grant funding : i.e. public money) ‘Consultant’ commissioned by WTC. The WTC members are very casual about bothering to attend – yet the Chair/Mayor wants credit for the efforts of others.

Value for Money?

Since the onset of COVID, Whitby Town Council’s gross income amounts to around TWO MILLION POUNDS, predominantly from:

• • four-and-a-half years Precept;
  • revenue from assets (PAG & the Whitby Museum, allotments, events, etc);
  • successful grant-funding applications;
  • revenue from the DANFO contract (public conveniences paddle-gate receipts).

TWO M-I-L-L-I-O-N POUNDS!

According to Google (see below), the average Whitby salary is a little over £20k per annum (£20,324) – from which the ‘earner’ must cover her/his rent (or mortgage), food, clothing, furniture, heating/lighting/cooking, transport, establishing a home, raising (and educating) a family, sport and leisure, recreation, insurances, and – well, the list is endless.

It would take that ‘earner’ TEN YEARS to earn £200k  – a decade of working lifetime.

To earn TWO MILLION POUNDS would take A CENTURY – two whole working lifetimes.

WTC has squandered TWO MILLION POUNDS (mostly on Staff salaries) since COVID – and Mayor DALRYMPLE offers no explanations as to what has been achieved!

QUESTION 3

My Commentary on Question 3:

YES.

At first glance, one might assume that Question 3 is really a mere ancilliary to Question 2. But this is not the case.

Although the astonishing shortfall between anticipated and received revenues from the public conveniences (estimated at between £48k – £68k) are of serious financial concern, the underlying problems are inextricably linked to the very nature and form of words of the contract between to the two parties (Council and DANFO) – a matter of contract law rather than a purely financial matter.

It seems astonishing to me that the DANFO contract could ever have been signed off in July 2017 by the then-Chair/Mayor, Councillor Heather COUGHLAN, along with the then-Town Clerk/RFO, Mrs Pam DOBSON, without the Council seeking external professional advice from a contract law specialist. Yet such appears to have been the case. I find no record of the Council commissioning a firm such as this:

• • https://www.summitlawllp.co.uk/legal-guide-to-breach-of-contract/
    

We are now left to wonder whether or not the contract is soundly structured. Is it legally binding? May it fall foul of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977? Has there been a breach of contract? Is it open to challenge at law? Should the Council be considering legal action against DANFO? Is the Council insured to do so? Is the Council at risk of being sued by DANFO? Should the Council lose, we would e the ones footing the bill. Without the full and exhaustive paper-trail, who can make a reliable determination?

These are not questions to be settled under the rubric of financially-focused forensic accountancy. These are questions of lawerly exactitude rather than the minutiae of the corporate bean-counters.

Certainly, these questions are far above the pay-grade of the Heather COUGHLANs and Pam DOBSONs of this world.

SUMMARY

There can be no doubt whatsoever that, if allowed to continue on its present trajectory (the Precept almost doubling every 2/3 years), then a Precept of well over a thousand pounds per annum could be upon us by 2030 – if not before.

The present ‘management’ of Whitby Town Council has failed beyond any reasonable measure of competence.

It must be VACATED immedately and, always accepted that 1 or 2 of the present members be free to re-apply, appointed strictly on merit, RE-POPULATED with:

1. new members;
2. new diligence;
3. new ideas;
   
4. new dynamic;
5. new work ethic;
6. working with a new Town Clerk/RFO, guiding it towards the Council we have all long deserved:

THE BEST TOWN COUNCIL IN NORTH YORKSHIRE!

And we, the People of Whitby, must play our part, too.