WTC: Looking for LINDA

WTC: Looking for LINDA

• – an “In My View” article by NIGEL WARD, attempting to track down the curious case of the disappearing Whitby Town Council ‘pin-up girl’ whose position as figurehead of the Council stood unchallenged for almost three years. Where is she now?
  

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Throughout the period of the COVID-19 Lockdown (and a little beyond), the most prominent face in the ghost town (that Whitby then was) was probably none other than that of our former Town Mayor, Whitby Town Councillor Linda WILD.

I well remember the Town Meeting held at The Coliseum Theatre in Whitby on Wednesday 22nd March 2023, chaired by Councillor WILD in her capacity as Chair and Town Mayor of WTC. I remember it so well because it was I who Seconded her Proposal to petition North Yorkshire County Council to reduce the 19-strong membership of WTC to a more manageable 12-15 members.

My thoughts, at that time, were that by reducing the overall number of members, the net effect might be that of attracting much the same number (or more) candidates to contest far fewer seats, so that the chances of our Town Councillors actually receiving an electoral mandate from the people, at the ballot-box, might strengthen “accountability” and increase the prospects of our Town Councillors becoming at least known to the people they purport to represent.

It certainly did not occur to me, at that time, that having fewer members would also have the net effect of necessarily including the departure of certain Councillors who had (shall we say) “under-performed” during the Lockdown circumstances of Zoom meetings, in terms of due diligence and/or scrutiny, thus making it easier for a small cabal to rule the roost with little fear of challenge. Nor did it occur to me that such Councillors would no longer be available to answer questions or make statements in any investigation into the still-unexplained toilet losses of the deepening mystery of the vanishing financial Reserves.

Chatting with Linda in the early spring of 2023, I was surprised to learn from her that she had decided not to throw her hat into the ring for another incumbency as Chair/Mayor at the then-forthcoming Annual Meeting of Full Council. Ebullient in her descriptions of how high she had flown the Whitby flag at ever-so-many Civic Events that she had attended – and describing herself as “the best Mayor Whitby ever had” – she seemed to me to be by far the most extrovert envoy Whitby could possibly ever hope to have.

A former LibDem Councillor at Kirklees Council, in West Yorkshire, Councillor WILD has made many, many appearances in the newspapers in both hemispheres. These entries range from such trivialities as failing to successfully appeal a parking-ticket to globalising her civic role as Whitby Town Mayor by accompanying the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth on a ‘twinning’ jolly to the Falklands) [Source: Archived URL-links].

I am sure regular readers of the Whitby Gazette and the Scarborough News, or surfers of the This Is The Coast website will recall encountering innumerable ‘Linda WILD’ stories. I certainly do. Sometimes it seemed almost weekly.

But they are not now coming up under ‘news search’ criteria today on my Google or other search engines citing “Councillor Linda Wild Whitby Gazette” or “Councillor Wild Scarborough News” or “Councillor Wild This Is The Coast”.

One almost gathers the impression that Councillor WILD has made a determined effort to engage what is know as the “right to be forgotten”

It is generally the case that when a well-established ‘press hog’ invokes the “right to be forgotten” legislation, there is something (or other) that she/he is hoping to conceal.

When Councillor WILD stepped down from the Chairship/Mayoralty (and Councillor Bob ‘The Nob’ DALRYMPLE replaced her), I began to take an interest in WTC’s Annual Accounts and its Governance Compliance (the legal process by which every Council must provide formal assurance to the External Auditor that it has been conducting its business within the law and proper practice).

These assurances – known as Assertions on the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) and the AGAR must be submitted, in WTC’s case, to External Auditor PKF LITTLEJOHN LLP – where they are open to challenge (called lodging ‘Objections’) by any member of the local electorate (whose identity, by law, must be protected by anonymity).

It soon turned out that gathering the evidence to support AGS/AGAR Objections had a certain needle-in-a-haystack character to it at Whitby Town Council. 

Documents that are statutorily required to be published on the WTC website were conspicuous by their absence, along with up-to-date Agendas, Minutes, Policy and Procedure documentation (supposedly annually reviewed), Reserves accounting, Contingency accounting – in short, a great deal of Public Record information that the publication (and the duty of safe management of which resided with the then-Clerk/RFO, Mr Michael KING. The list of ‘missing’ documents is extensive. Very extensive.

By September 2023, I had discovered that I was not alone in my search for key missing elements of the WTC Public Record – and, indeed, that others were ahead of me on the track of the financial shortfalls in the Public Conveniences Account and the Council’s Reserves. I owe a debt of gratitude to them.

And then came the Extraordinary Meeting of Tuesday 26th September 2023, the Agenda for which contains the most bizarre Proposal (by the since-departed Councillor Noreen WILSON, and Seconded by Councillor WILD) that can only be in interpreted (in my mind, at least) as an open attack on those Councillors who were digging deep into where the money had gone:

For Absolute Clarity

I am not suggesting – nor have I ever suggested – that any Whitby Town Councillor has, in any sense, had a ‘finger in the cookie jar’. Certainly not.

However, following deep and lengthy examination of the Public Record, in close combined study with others well-versed in local government law and financial regulations, I am now convinced that there has been an astonishing level of naïvety, gullibility, lack of diligence, laziness and sheer stupidity of such embarrassing proportions that this entire catastrophe comes down to nothing more than an attempt to avoid complete loss of face, deep personal humiliation and disgrace.

They simply lack the strength of character to own up. 

Last Up

On Wednesday 12th February 2025, in order to address the members under Agenda Item 3 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION, I attended a meeting of the WTC Human Resources Committee, chaired by Councillor Steve SMITH.

My specific purpose was to ask Councillors to draw a line under this horrible toxic in-fighting that has brought the Council to a standstill and made the new Clerk’s role almost impossible to fulfill – in short, I asked Councillors to ‘bury the hatchet’ and move on. Do something for the town.

Many readers will know that WTC’s Standing Orders limit the number of speakers at Public Participation to a maximum of five and no speaker may speak for more than three minutes. In any case, whilst suspended, Standing Orders are not in force. So where does the Council obtain the authority to limit the number of speakers and the time allotted to then to speak?

It seemed to me that the Council had no statutory powers to limit my right to Freedom of Expression (enshrined in Art. 10.1 of the Human Rights Act 1998) to three minutes:

Article 10

Freedom of expression

1 Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

On 12th January 2025, I had written to Mr CHUGG, the Clerk/RFO, posing the following question:

My question was this:

Applying the “natural and ordinary meaning of words” (as the Courts do), in what possible sense could the Chair/Mayor, acting in that formal capacity (i.e presiding over a meeting of a local government body) be said – should he attempt to curtail, after three minutes, a member of the public pursuing her/his lawful right to “impart information” – to be doing anything other than exercising “interference by public authority”?

The point is by no means merely academic. It has become apparent that a significant number of members of the public have formed strong opinions (and raised many questions) regarding the present state of WTC’s finances and contractual arrangements (particularly regarding the Reserves and the DANFO public conveniences contractual arrangements). 

These are complex issues of conspicuous public interest. They do not lend themselves to a cursory or sketchy description condensed into an arbitrary 3 minute delivery.

I accept that the Chair/Mayor may at any time, at his own prerogative, extend Public Participation – not only as to its duration, but also as to the number of speakers. I cannot recall that ever having taken place.

But I think it is important to establish that an open, transparent discourse is permitted and welcomed, in complete compliance with the statutory requirements of, inter alia, the HRA98, so that some semblance of accountability can be achieved – and be seen to have been achieved.

In due course, Mr CHUGG provided the legal advice which he had meanwhile obtained from Ms Sheena SPENCE, Chief Officer of the Yorkshire Local Councils’ Associations (YLCA), which confirmed my position – WTC has no power to silence me (or any other member of the public – or Council) after 3 minutes – or any other period of time.

As I recall, it was Ian DURY who wrote “There ain’t half been some clever bastards”. A careful review of his lyrics reveals no reference to gawky-looking delusional morons, bent coppers or self-absorbed narcissistic losers.

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On a not-too-distantly-related topic, I would like to comment on the extraordinary number of ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ recorded on the major social media platforms in response to Whitby resident Mr Peter COOPER’s fine Letter to the Editor entitled “A View from the Public Gallery” (pub. 09/02/25).

On the evening of 10th February 2025 (the very next day), independent sources informed me that, at a meeting of the Whitby Civic Society, Councillor WILD had regaled Mr COOPER with the ominous words:

• “You will be hearing from my solicitor!”.

Well, as I reported at the time, I too have received one of those hot-air, waste-of-money solicitor’s letters (03/10/23). But some people never learn. Like dead meat, they are beyond education. 

Nevertheless, I must press my advice to Councillors:

If you insist on wasting money on futile solicitors’ letters, then do so by all means. But pay for them from your own pockets, not mine – and not from the Public Purse.

But I do have to admit that Linda’s classic “hearing from my solicitor!” remark set me off. It reminded of the NYE satirical Photoon about the time a market-trader asked her not to allow her dog to pee on the table-cloth of her cakes stand

Please try to remember, Councillors, you are in the public eye. You are accountable to the public. That means me. You are only “volunteers”, remember? There is nothing in it for you but the pomp and the glory. Or is there?

So if you are feeling the heat, you can always get out of the kitchen . . .