Spotlight

WTC Seeks 31.6% RISE in Local Council Tax

Nigel December 8, 2024 Whitby Town

WTC Seeks 31.6% RISE in Local Council Tax

– an “In My View” article by NIGEL WARD, appealing for public support to resist a RISE of almost ONE THIRD in the Precept (Local Council Tax for Whitby Town Council).

~~~~~

Background

As previously reported, the Finance, Policy & General Purposes Committee (FP&GP) of Whitby Town Council was scheduled to meet on Tuesday 3rd December 2024.

Regrettably, the meeting – which many observers regard as the most important FP&GP Committee meeting of the calendar year – did not take place due to a vital technicality.

In order for any Council Meeting (whether Full Council or one of its many Committees – and bear in mind that the FP&GP Committee is the “engine-room” of the Council’s financial strategies and responsibilities) to take place, a specified number of members MUST be present. In the case of the FP&GP Committee, that number – known as the Quorum – is FOUR. The Committee comprises SEVEN members (plus the Mayor/Chair of the Council, Councillor Bob DALRYMPLE, who sits ex officio (i.e. out of respect for his position, but without voting rights), plus two substitutes who may take part only in place of two absentee members who have formally tendered their apologies for their inability to attend, having first notified the Clerk/RFO (Mr Adam CHUGG) to that effect.

The FP&GP Comittee comprises 7 Councillors (plus the Town Mayor, ex officio):

Alf ABBOTT
Rob BARNETT
Heather COUGHLAN
Jonathan HARSTON
John NOCK
Sandra TURNER
Linda WILD (Chair)
Bob DALRYMPLE (ex officio = non-voting)

The 2 designated substitutes are Councillors:

Jacqui LAYMAN
Chris RIDDOLLS

Unfortunately – some might say shockingly (considering the crucial importance of this meeting) – the QUORUM could not be achieved for the scheduled 3rd December 2024 meeting.

Therefore, the Clerk/RFO was left with no viable alternative but to postpone the meeting and re-schedule it for Tuesday 10th December ay 6:00pm at the Pannett Gallery, Pannett Park, WHITBY, YO21 1RE, under the same Agenda:

The Next Step

The re-scheduled meeting is undoubtedly likely to prove contentious – in the extreme.

Whilst not appearing on the Agenda proper, the summary (£½m+) 2025/26 draft Budget includes, at the bottom line, a proposed increase in the Precept (WTC’s Local Council Tax) of 31.6% – the merest fraction under an increase of ONE-THIRD:

This follows consecutive increases in the two preceding financial years of 21% and 15% respectively – not forgetting the former Clerk/RFO’s outrageous attempt last December 2023 to foist a 46% increase in the 2024/25 Precept – rapidly challenged by Councillor Sandra TURNER, whose intervention forced the former Clerk/RFO to revise his draft in accordance with a ridiculous request for Councillors to provide a ‘Dear Santa Christmas Wish-List’ of their (anonymous) suggestions, no later than 24th December 2023.

The upward trajectory is logarithmic, yet no comparable increase in services and amenities is discernible. The principal source of the increase appears to be – so far as can be determined from the chaotic public record inherited by the new Clerk/RFO, Mr Adam CHUGG, from his predecessor, former Clerk/RFO Mr Michael KING – the need to replenish the Council’s Reserves (the contingency – or “rainy day” – fund that is set out in the Local Audit & Accountability Act 2014 against unforeseeable expenses brought about, for example, by floods, pandemics or other ‘Acts of God)’, which would appear to have been “absorbed”, to one degree or another, into filling a gigantic hole left by the disastrous management of the Council’s contractual arrangements with DANFO, the Council’s contracted service provider for Whitby’s public conveniences.

Councillors tell me that the credit-card receipts from the public conveniences adjacent to the town’s Bandstand slumped from tens of thousands of pounds per year to an inexplicable £13.47 due to a “for months on end” unnoticed failure in the credit-card reading-machine’s wi-fi connection.

I have seldom heard of such a monumental failure of competence.

The original FP&GP Committee Agenda is reproduced below, from the WTC website:

The Draft Budget

Make no mistake; I attach no criticism for this madcap Budget to our new Clerk/RFO, Mr Adam CHUGG, who took up his task only on 1st October 2024, faced with the full day-to-day workload of the Council to manage, and has had barely 30 working-days in post somehow to slap some semblance of a dab of lipstick on his predecessor’s wrinkly old pig.

Mission impossible in the time available. But by the time Full Council meets in mid-January to ratify the Budget, something has to change.

A Local Comparison

They say that “comparisons are odious”. This one certainly is. Scarborough’s central unparished Wards are to have a Town Council imposed upon them as of May 2025.

The Council will comprise 5 Wards (each represented by 3 Councillors – a total of 15 elected members). Whitby has 7 Wards, with a total of 19 members, only one of whom (Councillor Peter BOLTON [Lab.]) holds a full electoral mandate.

Despite the onerous burden of “starting from scratch” set-up costs, first Budget for Scarborough Town Council (STC) will look like this:

For STC, with a gross Budget of £384k, the Precept charge on a Band ‘D’ household is to be set at £28.88.

WTC, with a gross Budget of £556k, is proposing a Precept charge on a Band ‘D’ household at £86.16 – THREE TIMES the STC figure.

So it is small wonder that a leading North Yorkshire Councillor has asked, “And for what? For bugger all!”.

The truth, as I see it, is that what we are paying for is past ineptitude of the highest conceivable order.

It cannot go on.

My Next Step

I have formally registered with the Clerk/RFO my wish and intention to address the FP&GP Committee (and those members of the public who wish to attend) to offer an opinion and a proposal (with a small ‘p’).

I sincerely hope that Whitby residents who are concerned, alarmed or righteously outraged at the Council’s mismanagement of its (OUR) finances will do their best to attend and give careful consideration to what I have to say.

I look forward to your full support. Thank you.