Councillor? Councillor Who?

PETER COOPER should be applauded for taking the trouble to examine for himself the realities of Whitby Town Council and the public perception of the likely outcome of the forthcoming Mayor Making.

~~~~~

Sir,

Councillor?

– Which Councillor?

Sitting in a coffee shop on Skinner Street recently, I struck up a conversation with a recently-retired carpenter who has lived in Whitby for many years. Let’s call him ‘Jim’. We talked about this and that, and eventually the conversation turned to local politics. I mentioned my recent letter to the North Yorks Enquirer, “A View from the Public Gallery”.

I explained how the Letter had simply described the dullness of a recent Whitby Town Council meeting which I had attended, the archaic way of going about things, the lack of progress on issues, and how, in my opinion, the Town Council needed to do far more to engage with the residents of the parish. Despite the Letter simply describing what I saw and heard, I said how sad I was that critics of the letter were addressed Town Councillors at the meeting and were on trivial matters such as the use of a metaphor to make a non-literal comparison between the Museum and the Town Council. One criticism had led me to make a Formal Complaint to the NY Monitoring Officer at Northallerton, but I was discreet and did not disclose which Councillor the Complaint was against and the nature of the Complaint.

I asked Jim what his experience of Whitby Town Council had been over the years. From his initial response, I could tell that he had little to say. I asked him which ward he was in and who his local Town Councillor was. He did not know, so I pulled out my phone and browsed to the Whitby Town Council website. After a few clicks, I found what I wanted (a map showing the ward boundaries) and discovered Jim lived in the West Cliff ward. A few scrolls and clicks later, and we were really cooking on gas – the names of the Councillors for the West Cliff ward were on the screen before us. Two in fact, and there could have been three, but there has been a vacancy for Many months.

“There you go,” I said, showing Jim the screen.

“Who is Councillor Elizabeth Mulheran?” he asked. “Never heard of her. Is she local?“

I couldn’t answer his question because there was no more information on the Town Council website – just her name and her Whitby Town Council email address. I Googled her name for Jim and the search results took me to the North Yorks Enquirer website.

“Ah,” I said. “That explains it. She is co-opted.”

Jim looked at me blank. “She’s from the Co-op?”

“No, no, no,” I replied. “It means she wasn’t elected by the ballot box. The Councillors simply consider a person before them at a meeting, and then vote them on the Council with no public election taking place. They choose them, not us.”

Jim still looked lost, so I moved on to the name of the second Ward Councillor.

“How about Councillor Robert Dalrymple?”, I asked. “Heard of him?”.

Jim seemed unsure and asked if he used to be a solicitor or barrister.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “‘Dalrymple of the Bailey'”, I pondered. “Has a ring to it.”

“He’s actually the Mayor”, I added.

“You sure?”, Jim replied. “I’m sure the Mayor’s a woman. Wife saw her open that posh nursing home. Pleasant woman she was. Wife took an instant liking to her.”

Admittedly, Jim’s knowledge of Whitby Town Council was poor. We went on to talk about the amount of money Whitby Town Council pulls in from our Council Tax bills – an average of £60 per household and nearly £250,000 a year in total – which astonished him – and I asked him if he could say what services the townspeople get for this. He came up with looking after the park, flower beds on the West Cliff and allotments, and after a while and some encouragement, I teased public toilets out of him. And that was it.

Was Jim typical of a resident of the Whitby West Cliff ward, I wondered? I decided to do a little research and find out.

Referring to the map of the West Cliff ward, I looked through the contacts in my address book and started messaging people I knew who lived in the ward. I then asked around at both my current and former place of employment. I also took advantage of the good weather and went walking around the West Cliff ward and struck up conversations with residents there who I knew by sight from working in the area – quite easy to do as people were out tending their gardens, washing their cars, doing DIY and so on. I even called in at a nursing home, a pub and a couple of shops.

Nearly everyone I made contact with was unsure of the town ward they lived in; not one person had heard of Cllr Elizabeth Mulheran, and just one knew of Cllr Robert Dalrymple, referring to him as ‘Bob from the Rifle Club’. A few people mentioned Councillor Sandra Turner, a hard-working member of the Town Council for whom I have a lot of respect – always engaging, saying hello and exchanging a few cheerful words when we meet on the street.

A couple of people thought Councillor Alf Abbott was their Councillor, and others mentioned how happy they were that Alison Hume was doing a lot for the town. Another person said they missed Joe Plant not being on the Council as he always got things done, and nothing gets down these days. Quite a variety of views, but so much ignorance when it comes to Whitby Town Council, their Councillors and what they actually do.

That evening, I decided to have a good look at Whitby Town Council’s website and see if I could discover more about the Council, its Councillors and, collectively, what they do. I found a comprehensive list of A-Z services, and thought I had struck gold, but when I started clicking on the links for these, nearly all took me to the North Yorkshire Council website or gave the details of other service providers. 

There is a long list of Town Councillors, but when you click on the names, there is no information about that individual Councillor. No brief bio introducing them and saying what they bring to the table as a Councillor and how they will serve their Town Ward  – just an official Town Council email address and a contact number if you are lucky. The occasional one has a photo uploaded which is a nice touch – it would be good if all had one.

There is a link to the ‘Mayor of Whitby’, inviting you to ‘find out all about the Town Mayor and what they are up to.’ You click through to this page and it simply confirms the name of the Mayor, Councillor Dalrymple and the date he was re-elected. No other information. Not even a smiling photo of him proudly wearing his civic regalia. Nada. Nothing.

There are pages relating to the finances of the Town Council which make interesting reading. In the latest accounts published to 31/03/2023, £233,385 was the total amount of Council Tax Precept received from residents of the parish, and nearly all of this was spent on staff costs – salaries, wages, pension payments etc. The Council Tax Precept is just under half of the Town Council’s income – other major income streams include revenue from the museum (60% of all entrance fees charged – from the expenditure breakdown, much of this covers the maintenance and running costs of the building) and revenue from the town’s public toilets (after contractual fees paid to Danfo). The Christmas Market appears in the accounts (with income pretty much balancing expenditure) – the annual event North Yorkshire Councillor Phil Trumper and his merry band of volunteers do much graft for each year. 

A page on the Town Council’s website gives information about the allotments it controls, the rules for them and how to apply for one. A ‘News’ page is just notices of job vacancies and elections – little else. The final pages I shall mention are those which contain a calendar with all council meetings, past and present. Lots of meetings. Full council, extraordinary meetings and many committee meetings. Lots of agendas, minutes, reports and documents.

These meetings are clearly what occupies much of the Town Councillors’ time. Meetings where members of the public can usually sit in the gallery and observe, and make a strict three-minute contribution if they wish. From recent meetings I have attended, I wonder if the Town Council takes much note of these contributions – it’s usually just a formal nod of appreciation from the Chairman before he/she launches into the next item on the agenda. 

I really do feel that the Town Council needs to do more to engage with the community. It has to be more than attending endless meetings and a website. Not everyone has internet access, particularly the elderly, and of those who do, how many would think of going to the Whitby Town Council website for information or news about the town, or if they had a problem or issue with Council service provision in the town? 

I have emailed the current Town Clerk, Mr Adam Chugg, with suggestions of how the Town Council could engage more with the community. Mr Chugg is new to the role, and speaking with him after a recent council meeting, I found him both friendly and engaging, and keen to get on with his job and do it well. I look forward to his reply.

One suggestion I made was that the Town Council should produce and distribute a quarterly newsletter for its residents. Rather than “you will be hearing from my solicitor”, (to quote a Town Councillor recently), the response should be “our parishioners will be hearing from their Town Councillors”– the promise of a newsletter rather than the threat of a solicitor’s letter. The residents of Sleights and Briggswath get a two-page A4 newsletter from their Parish Council with news about what the Parish Council has achieved and what is happening in their Parish, along with contact details of the Parish Councillors and an invitation to get in touch. 

It is delivered to every household with the Whitby Advertiser – a cost-effective way of doorstep leaflet distribution, much cheaper than Royal Mail.  

A second suggestion was a monthly ‘Meet your Town Council’ event at the Pannett Art Gallery. Hold it on Mondays when the museum is closed. Use the Pannett Art Gallery room. Buy a jar of coffee, box of tea bags and a packet or two of custard creams and make it into a coffee morning. Publicise it widely and have two or three Town Councillors on hand, and the Town Clerk or his deputy to engage with residents that come along.

If Town Councillors can find the time to attend so many Meetings, surely they can find time to meet with residents just once per month, the Council Tax Precept payers  (those who pay the Town Council half of the Council’s income) and listen to their views and opinions, then include these in all the Council and Committee Meetings? If the Museum can’t be used as a venue, have a stand on Whitby Market once a month, or a stand at some of the many shows and events that take place in the town.

Another suggestion I made was that if a person is co-opted to the Council, encourage them to do a leaflet drop on their ward, a simple A5 flyer introducing themselves, why they want to serve on the Council, how to contact them and including a photo. The type of leaflet they would produce if standing for an election. The reverse of the leaflet can either be used as a reminder of other town Councillors serving the ward or give information about what Whitby Town Council does and a summary of recent town news that affects the parish – updates on the Neighbourhood Plan, Town Deal projects in the town and recent achievements of the Town Council. Residents will then know who their Ward Councillor is, and hopefully start to engage with the council. Break the apathy, get known on the streets, get to know what residents want, make better-informed decisions at those many meetings by getting to know what residents want, rather than just making decisions in the absence of their views and opinions – either guessing what residents want, or just putting forward their own personal opinions.

In summary, what have I learnt so far from my brief research into Whitby Town Council?

A fair amount, but it raises more questions, to be honest. Nearly all of the Council Tax Precept taken from Parish residents, amounting to almost a quarter of a million pounds, simply goes on salaries, staff wage and pensions, but it must be noted, none of this is spent on Town Councillors – all Councillors are voluntary and receive no payment whatsoever. And what does the Council do to ‘earn their keep’?

Well, they manage three allotment sites, take money off the Museum to pay the bills and maintain the building in Pannett Park, they have responsibility of the public toilets, but a company Danfo manages them, they put on the Christmas Market, but a NY Councillor and many volunteers do much of the work here, and they have various Committees and lots of Meetings – lots and lots of them. Many Parish residents do not know who their Town Councillor is and, when given the name, they have no knowledge of the person (I checked with others in different wards as well as the West Cliff ward). Very few people know who the Fown’s Mayor is either. Many people do not know what the Town Council does – if they have a problem with local services, they just ring the former Town Hall in Scarborough or go on the NYC website to report a problem.

I would love someone to explain what else the Town Council does, and show how it gives value for money to its precept payers? There must be some added value somewhere that I am missing?

And explain how are decisions made if few people engage with the Council, and Councillors are unknown even in their own wards? The title of this Letter could have been ‘Who is Cllr Elizabeth Mulheran’, but I am sure you can go around the other wards and substitute the name for, let’s say, Councillor Michael Harrison, Councillor Jonathan Harston and others. Yes, you could argue that they are elected to make decisions on our behalf so all is fair, but is it? How democratic are those decisions when so few people vote in local elections, or elections aren’t held and Councillors are either elected unopposed or co-opted (i.e. chosen by one another)? This is why I feel so strongly that Town Councillors need to get out and engage with the community. Many residents do not know of their existence and what they do.

Before I get the threats of letters from solicitors and visits to my employer challenging my freedom of thought and its public expression in this Letter, I would point out that the views and opinions expressed are mine, gathered after talking to residents in the Parish and browsing the Whitby Town Council website.

If I have misunderstood or omitted anything, I would be happy for a Town Councillor or the Town Clerk to tell me. Or better still, tell the residents of the parish using the suggestions I have outlined above.

Please, please, let’s move on from the bugger’s muddle that I see at the moment…

Yours, etc

Peter Cooper