WTC: The Blind Leading The…?

WTC: The Blind Leading The…?

• – an In My View” article by NIGEL WARD sharing some fascinating insights from a member of the public who shall remain anonymous – much as the Council has urgent need of her/his services.

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Following five years of inept leadership by both elected members and paid public servants at Whitby Town Council, I have refrained from commenting on the 2025/26 instantiation of the Council to allow the present Chair/Mayor, Councillor Sandra TURNER a ‘period of grace’ in which to attempt to instill some commonsense. 

Unfortunately, Sandra has been severely handicapped by the sudden resignation of the ‘new’ Clerk/RFO/Proper Officer, Mr Adam CHUGG. This has left the Council Offices with what used to be known as a ‘power vacuum’.  Even more unfortunately, this has left the Council itself not only rudderless but without any visible means of propulsion or navigational skills. Thus, Councillor TURNER’s well-intentioned aspiration to ‘clean up’ the Council remains mud-bound – all for want of a Proper Officer. 

The Proper Officer is the statutorily authorised person who Summonses Councillors to Meetings, sets out the Business to be transacted at the Meetings (the Agendas) and (crucially) affixes the associated Public Notices announcing the Meetings at a “conspicuous place within the Parish” – so that we know that our representatives are up to something (if not much).

In broad brush strokes, no Proper Officer means no Agendas; no Agendas means no Public Notices; no Public Notices means no lawful Meetings. Hence, the Council has done nothing but exchange ill-tempered hot air for a couple of months now.

Help May Be at Hand

The following email was sent to all WTC Councillors on Thursday 11th September 2025. It is extremely unclear to me how many recipients have understood it – certainly not a majority. Those who have not yet understood it have some serious catching up to do. Those lacking the will to perform the necessary research to understand it would do well to choose another hobby. They tell me flower-arranging (free – so far as I know – from statutory constraints) can be very gratifying – and therapeutic.

The fact remains that the Council is under a legal obligation to publish either the FRC (the Final Report & Certificate for the Council’s 2023/24 Accounts – in lay terms, the Council’s financial and governance ‘MOT’) from the External Auditor – or an Interim Report, NOT LATER THAN 30th September 2025.

But first, the Council will need to appoint a Proper Officer. To do so, it must hold a lawfully convened Meeting. But in order lawfully to convene a Meeting, it will need a Proper Officer . . .

Trust me, the Auditor’s FRC will not be published on the WTC website by 30th September 2025. Just like last year.

I hope I am wrong, but I just cannot see it happening – which will mean yet another Objection to the Accounts for 2025/26. WTC is digging itself into tens of thousands of pounds in Audit Investigation Fees, increasing annually. Go on. Have a guess. Who will pay?

Dear Councillors,

I wrote to some of you back in March concerning the decision to appoint an assistant clerk rather than a deputy clerk. In that email I wrote:

‘I am writing to you to express concern regarding Whitby Town Council’s decision to advertise for an assistant clerk rather than a deputy town clerk. Given the strategic and operational demands of a modern local council, this approach may present significant risks and limitations. 

An assistant clerk is typically an administrative support role with no statutory authority to deputise for the clerk. If the clerk is absent or the position becomes vacant, the council may face governance and operational challenges, as an assistant clerk cannot automatically assume the statutory duties of the proper officer or responsible financial officer without formal delegation. This could delay decision-making, create compliance risks, and impact service delivery. 

In contrast, a deputy town clerk would have clear delegated authority to act in the clerk’s absence, ensuring business continuity and compliance with legal obligations. Many councils of similar size to Whitby recognise the importance of this structure to ensure resilience and effective leadership. 

I urge the council to reconsider its approach and instead recruit a deputy town clerk, who would be better placed to provide operational support, continuity, and succession planning.’

I take no pleasure in being proved correct so soon after the council made the mistake of appointing an assistant town clerk and then compounding its mistake by appointing someone as unsuitable as Phil Trumper. 

However, I write to you all now as I am concerned about the governance failures that the council and Phil Trumper are currently presiding over. For example, the recently published minutes of the HR committee meetings held on the 19th and 28th August (as difficult as they are to read due to being littered with grammatical and spelling mistakes – a town as prominent as Whitby deserves better than these semi-literate scribblings!) highlight several areas of concern. 

Firstly, the 19th August minutes list Cllr Layman as an ex-officio committee member. If a councillor is an ex-officio member of a committee, it means they are a full member of that committee by virtue of holding another office i.e. Mayor. It’s not clear why Cllr Layman has been appointed as an ex-officio member but if she is recognised as such then the committee chair has no power to remove her from any part of the meeting. Cllr Layman is either an ex-officio member of the committee with full rights to attend meetings or she is not. You cannot have it both ways. 

Later in the same minutes it is reported that the assistant clerk’s job description is to be amended to allow him to act as Proper Officer in the absence of the Proper Officer. As I cannot see anywhere on your subsequent agendas or minutes that Phil Trumper has actually been formally designated as the council’s Proper Officer, are you assuming that amending his job description suffices as formal designation as the council’s Proper Officer? I can tell you that it does not. Councils are required by law to have both a Proper Officer and a Responsible Financial Officer. The appointment of such officers cannot be delegated to a committee so please direct me to the resolution of the council where Phil Trumper has been appointed to temporarily cover both of these roles. If the council has not passed such resolutions then you are currently acting unlawfully, and summons such as that signed by Phil Trumper for the 2nd September council meeting are incorrect. If the council does not currently have a designated RFO then how is it lawfully making payments? 

There are also procedural issues with the extraordinary meetings that have been called in the name of the Mayor. Although the Mayor can convene extraordinary meetings and place matters on the agenda, only the Proper Officer can issue the summons to councillors. There was recent legal advice that confirms this position. I would suggest that any recent meetings where the Mayor has signed the summons have been convened unlawfully. 

Also, minutes of the meeting of the HR committee held on 28th August don’t include Cllr Turner in the list of those present but the minutes state she was subsequently elected to chair the meeting despite apparently not being present. 

I note that the council is seeking advice from NALC on conducting a recruitment process to replace the town clerk. I only hope, for the sake of the town, that this process can be completed quickly and that Phil Trumper’s proven inability to even write basic minutes or to understand basic statutory provisions of local government excludes him from being considered for the job of town clerk. His appointment as assistant clerk did not go down well locally given the obvious conflicts of interest and the politicisation of officer roles within the town council, and the people of this good town will not tolerate a stitch up when it comes to appointing a new town clerk. 

Yours ever,