Vacant Chairs & Musical Clerks!

Vacant Chairs & Musical Clerks!

• – an “In My View” article by NIGEL WARD in the form of a dramatic orchestral percussion crescendo of bombastic proportions about to rock the Local Government of North Yorkshire to its grass roots.

The Chairs are on the move now – and a Game of Musical Clerks is afoot!

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As we approach the final Episode of Councilllor John BUCKLEY’s exposé (“A Vivisection”) of Newby & Scalby Town Council, the Enquirer suddenly finds itself on the receiving end of a host of ‘leaks’ which, if substantiated over the coming days, will expose a Local Government scandal covering a sixty mile radius.

Readers of The Stray Ferret (covering the area formerly known as Harrogate & Knaresborough Borough Council) will perhaps be aware that a blood-letting has been brewing for some time now at the Ripon City Council. A new face has arrived – a face already known (but for barely a year) to the people of Whitby.

News on Whitby Town Council has been scarce (one might speculate “suppressed”) following the ‘shock’ resignation of WTC Clerk, Proper Officer and Responsible Financial Officer, Mr Adam CHUGG (on 13th August 2025), but who would have expected a departure from Whitby would so soon be followed by an arrival at Ripon?

Come to that, who would have expected an arrival in Whitby to have followed a book-end departure from Whitby, six years previously?

Or that that earlier departure should itself have followed a five-year even earlier departure, on that occasion, a departure from Filey?

Throw in the fact that resignations from Filey Town Council are rolling in so thick and fast now that the Council could find itself inquorate from as early as Monday next.

And then include further confused murmurings to the effect that the recent mooted appointment of a former Yarm Town Council Clerk, Proper Officer and RFO should so swiftly be followed by a disappointment, followed (most extraordinarily) by a re-appointment, then yet another disappointment?

And the suspected improprieties behind these troop movements? Faulty legal advice, undisclosed declarations of interests, 

So as the music grinds slowly and ominously to a halt over the coming weekend, let us engage in a guessing game over the identities of the departing Chairs who have been playing piggy back amidst protagonists of this game of Musical Clerks.