Whitby residents' poll could force Town Councillors to resign
The call for councillors to resign is one of three issues that the public can vote on
Whitby residents are set to vote in a poll that could see all the members of its town council forced to resign.
A controversial public poll on whether the elected members of Whitby Town Council should resign “en-masse” is set to take place on Friday, October 6.
The call for councillors to resign is one of three issues that the public can vote on.
Town councillors and residents gave the motion the green light at a town assembly on Monday, September 4.
The motion, put forward by Coun Robert Barnett, asks: “Should the present members of Whitby Town Council resign en-masse to facilitate the democratic election, by ballot of a fully mandated representative Town Council for Whitby?”
A town council election was held in May 2022 but some residents have said that holding new elections is necessary because of April’s local government reorganisation.
However, other councillors have objected to the poll with an extraordinary meeting of Whitby Town Council called to debate a motion that “condemns” members of the authority who “seek to disrupt the ordinary business of the council with pointless and irrelevant motions, or in calling for town assembly meetings and for town polls for trivial reasons”.
The latter motion, proposed by Coun Noreen Wilson for the extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, September 26, also states that “every pointless meeting or childish request detracts from true engagement and proper decision making”.
It adds: “If certain members of this council are not prepared to honour this principle and apply themselves to effective, co-operative working in the best interests of the people of Whitby, it is they who should resign and clear the way for those who do.”
Coun Asa Jones told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he spoke against the resignation motion when it was proposed earlier this month “on the basis that the holding of a poll and seven by-elections would be extremely costly and that there will be no guarantee that enough people will want to stand to allow us to have genuinely competitive elections”.
The councillor represents Whitby West Cliff, a three-seat ward which has recently gained a new vacancy that could be filled through co-option or an election “if any ten local government electors for the West Cliff Ward submit a written request to that effect”.
Coun Jones added that if residents voted in favour of the poll then he “would resign as a councillor to stand in a by-election for the White Leys Ward, where I live, and would seek the nomination of the local Social Justice Party to be their candidate”.
Whitby’s mayor, Coun Robert Dalrymple, has stated that the Town Poll will be paid for “by local taxpayers via the town council”.
The two other questions that residents can vote on relate to renovation of the Old Town Hall and the proposed construction of a Maritime Training Hub.
Voting in the poll will take place in person on Friday, October 6 from 4pm to 9pm at eight polling stations across Whitby.
Poll cards will not be sent out and postal voting will not take place.