There was a Town Poll in Whitby Parish on Friday 6th October between 4:00pm and 9:00pm.
The questions printed on the ballot paper were
- 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?
- Should Whitby Town Council petition the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities (DLUHC) to halt and re-examine, the Whitby Town Deal Board project to regenerate the Market Place and to restrict the project to the renovation of the Old Town Hall?
- Should Whitby Town Council petition the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities (DLUHC) to halt and re-examine, in consultation with Whitby residents, the Whitby Town Deal Board project to build a Maritime Training Hub on Endeavour Wharf?
Please refer to details on the North Yorkshire Council website for information regarding parish polls. You can read the full poll info here.
The Town Deal “Old Town Hall and Market Place project (with links to NYC website) is explained on this link.
The Town Deal “Maritime Training Hub” project (with links to the NYC website) is explained on this link.
There are no poll cards, and no postal votes. NYC have stated that Voter ID is NOT required.
You can find your polling station on the polling station list. Alternatively, see this map for an approximate guide
Town Assembly origin of the Town Poll
Whitby Parish had 2 Town Assembly meetings during September 2023. They were each called by 2 Whitby Town Council (WTC) Councillors ; the first by Cllr Alf Abbott and Cllr Rob Barnett (as well as 38 residents), and the second by Cllr Chris Riddolls and Cllr Alf Abbott.
The first (September 4th) was called with the proposal to have a town poll with the question
- “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?”. 11 signatories recorded.
The proposal passed (minimum requirement is 10), and consequently created the need for a town poll.
The second (September 18th) was called to address issues of concern that were not covered at the initial assembly. The main topics of conversation were 2 projects from the Whitby Town Deal, the Maritime Hub, and the Old Town Hall. This resulted in extra questions being added to the Town Poll as follows.
- “Should Whitby Town Council petition the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities (DLUHC) to halt and re-examine, the Whitby Town Deal Board project to regenerate the Market Place and to restrict the project to the renovation of the Old Town Hall?”. 27 signatories recorded.
- “Should Whitby Town Council petition the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities (DLUHC) to halt and re-examine, in consultation with Whitby residents, the Whitby Town Deal Board project to build a Maritime Training Hub on Endeavour Wharf?”. 26 signatories recorded.
WCN Involvement
Further to the two Town Assemblies, Whitby Community Network was accused of being behind the calls for both Town Assemblies and the Town Poll. This is demonstrably false.
WCN is a trustee-led voluntary organisation, with 7 trustees currently. No WTC councillor is a trustee of WCN. Members of the public are free to attend WCN public meetings, but are not, by that, a “member” of WCN. WCN works to push forward issues that residents raise, and any resident can help with WCN campaigns and, indeed, we have a few active campaign subgroups where the public is involved.
Both Town Assemblies were called for by WTC councillors (and residents), not WCN trustees. The Town Poll (with first question) was proposed by 2 WTC councillors, and was voted for by 11 members of the public. Not one WCN trustee spoke in favour or against it. Not one WCN trustee voted for it. Consequently, WCN is not responsible for, nor actively supported, the calling of a Town Poll.
WCN supports the rights of residents to have their voice heard and, as such, will make information pertinent to the Town Poll available to residents. In the case of this town poll, due to the Town Mayor abruptly terminating the first Town Assembly on 4th Sept that meant that there was very limited time (i.e a few days) to get any information out to residents, resulting in low resident awareness about the poll.
WCN campaigns for residents views to be considered first and foremost in decisions affecting their area.
Results
The turnout for this poll was 310 (3.07% of the electorate – total = 10103).
- 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? YES (225), NO (73). Namely 75.5% in favour.
- Should Whitby Town Council petition the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities (DLUHC) to halt and re-examine the Whitby Town Deal Board project to regenerate the Market Place and to restrict the project to renovation of the Old Town Hall? YES (252), NO (42). Namely 85.7% in favour.
- Should Whitby Town Council petition the Department for Levelling Up, Homes & Communities (DLUHC) to halt and re-examine, in consultation with Whitby residents, the Whitby Town Deal Board project to build a Maritime Training Hub on Endeavour Wharf? YES (247), NO (56). Namely 81.5% in favour.
The turn out was very low (largely due to the shortened time period from announcement of poll to the event, due to the abrupt termination of the first Town Assembly, and the consequential lack of time to get publicity out). We would like to thank each and every one of the residents who did turn out to vote and have their voice heard, which is what we stand for.
Regarding the results, they are statistically significant (95% confidence level and 5.5% margin of error). This means that the results are effectively
- Q1(75.5%) – 95% confidence level of the result being between 70.0% and 81.0%,
- Q2(85.7%) – 95% confidence level of the result being between 80.2% and 91.2%,
- Q3(81.5%) – 95% confidence level of the result being between 76.0% and 87.0%.
This is directly on a par with the results obtained by NYC in many of their “Let’s Talk” consultations (cf correspondence with Richard Flinton NYC Chief Exec), and taken with the clear result for each of the 3 questions, meaning that there is significant confidence in the results. In summary, residents have voted in favour of the two Town Deal projects being referred back for reconsideration.
