A consultation is to be launched on the future status of the town.
Scarborough residents are to be asked for their views on creating a town council.
The borough and county council's are set to be abolished next April, they will be replaced with a new unitary authority.
That new council will then devolve some powers to parish councils.
But Scarborough is one of just two areas in North Yorkshire that doesn't have a parish level council.
Councillor David chance says local people will now be asked for their views on what should happen.
As part of the ‘Case for Change’ for local government produced by North Yorkshire County Council setting out proposals for a single unitary authority for North Yorkshire, a commitment was made in relation to ‘double devolution’, which would see greater powers and funding passed to parish and town councils.
Whilst the majority of rural areas and all the smaller towns within North Yorkshire are covered by town or parish councils, the two largest towns being Harrogate and Scarborough remain unparished. The Case for Change stated that the new council would seek to develop parish or town councils where they don’t currently exist and people wanted them, including Harrogate and Scarborough.
The process for creating a new town or parish council is known as a community governance review (CGR). Yesterday the county council's executive approved a proposal to carry out a CGR in Scarborough.
In the first instance there will be an "Initial Consultation" in which Residents in the affected areas, along with elected representatives at all levels, are invited to respond and give their views of community governance in the affected area. This is a ‘blank sheet’ consultation, with no possible proposals being set by the Council at that time. This allows respondents to give their views with reasons.
After this the County Council will draft a proposed plan which will then put out to another public consultation.
The timescale for doing all this and actually creating a new town council could take 18 months which means any new town council wont be created before the local government changes in April 2023.
In that intervening period a "Charter Trustee" system could be used to provide a stop gap solution and ensure some of the ceremonial functions continue.
Charter trustees comprise of councillors representing the electoral divisions covering the unparished area. The Charter Trustees will have no power in respect of general functions or services, but will be responsible for ensuring the continuance of any ceremonial elements of the town, including a Mayor.
County Councillor David Chance says the process of carrying out the CGR can be started now but is going to take some time to complete.
The process will also look at what the boundary should be of any new town council for Scarborough. A portion of the Scarborough unparished area is within the Eastfield division; the remainder of the Eastfield division is covered by Eastfield Town Council. The CGR will seek to ascertain
the views of residents on whether the unparished portion of Eastfield ward should be included as part of Eastfield Town Council, rather than being included with the larger portion of the unparished area covering Scarborough Town.
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