Whitby Town Council is going to back out of historic plans to take over all the parks, open spaces and beach management in the town from North Yorkshire Council.
A meeting of Whitby Town Council’s (WTC) finance committee, on Tuesday this week, heard the proposal dates back several years when it was suggested WTC would assume responsibility for maintenance and delivery of Whitby’s parks, open spaces, floral displays, grounds maintenance and associated equipment in a double devolution scheme with North Yorkshire Council (NYC).
Since then a new town clerk has been appointed and the council has been overhauled, but a letter from NYC was received recently asking if it still wanted to progress the idea.
It said: “This letter is intended to formally confirm the current position of this proposal as part of North Yorkshire Council’s correspondence with all town, parish and city councils that had proposals within the Double Devolution Pilot.”
NYC replaced the Devolution Pilot with a Community Transfer Policy in July this year and added: “We would welcome confirmation as to whether Whitby Town Council wishes to continue progressing the proposal relating to parks, grounds maintenance, floral displays, associated equipment and depot space.”
Ryan Fuller, Whitby Town Council’s current clerk, said it had been an “ambitious” idea at the time and even now, the town council is not in a position financially or staff-wise to take on other projects at this time.
At the meeting he said: “This goes back several years and I understand at the time NYC pushed back on certain elements. I assumed it had disappeared until we got the letter asking what we wanted to do about it.
“Running Pannett Park alone costs in excess of £100,000 alone, without other things. The town council is not in a position – financially or staff wise – to even consider taking on these assets.”
Town Mayor, Sandra Turner said it would be an impossible project.
She said: “I don’t think we are in a position to take on what has been alluded to. It is a phenomenal project and responsibility. In an ideal world, it would be wonderful, but without a budget it is impossible.”
Coun Peter Bolton, chair of the Finance, Governance and General Purposes Committee, said members had made their position clear and it was voted unanimously that the town clerk should reply and inform NYC it did not wish to proceed.
Whitby Town Council’s expression of interest, submitted under the new Community Transfer Policy, in relation to taking over the Old Town Hall and Market Place still stands and the two authorities will be working together on that proposal.
