The poll on Friday asked three questions including whether the Town Council should resign "En-Masse"
The non-binding poll took place on Friday evening at polling stations across the town.
316 votes were cast with 6 being rejected. There were 10,103 people eligible to vote in the poll making the turnout just 3.07%.
The poll asked three questions.
- 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?
Of those that took part in the poll 225 people backed the call for the town council members to resign with 73 people voting against.
262 people backed the idea of halting and re-examining the plans for Market Place and the Old town Hall, 42 voted against.
247 people backed the call to halt and re-examine the plans for the Maritime Training Hub with 56 people voting against.
The poll was called after two recent town assemblies tabled the questions and received the required support of ten electors to instigate the poll.
The outcome of the poll is no more and no less than an expression of the views of the electorate of the parish who have voted in the poll and is not binding on any organisation. The Town's Mayor, Councillor Robert Dalrymple, had already indicated ahead of the poll that he would not be resigning from the council regardless of the poll outcome.
in a statement issued after the release of the poll result Town Councillor Asa Jones said:
"Only 310 people have turned out to vote at today's Town Poll. Thats 3.07% of Whitby's electorate. Of those 310, 225 voted for Whitby Town Councillors to resign.
In 2022, when there was a poll regarding a serious issue affecting our town (the housing crisis) and 2268 people turned out to vote, with many polling stations experiencing long queues.
What is clear from this result it that the people of Whitby are completely sick and tired of the divisive factionalism of the councillors who called for this poll and have spent the last 6 months trying to disrupt the Town Council. People want nothing to do with this petty, interpersonal behaviour and have rejected the premise of this poll by refusing to vote.
I have been clear from the start, if the incumbent Cllr for White Leys Ward (Cllr Riddolls) resigns then I too shall resign and fight the by-election for that seat.
Despite this frankly pathetic result, the question now has to be asked: "Will those councillors who supported this motion now follow through on the speeches they made at the town meeting last month and resign?"
I say they should."
The full poll result can be seen below
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