Whitby residents invited to town meeting to discuss proposed 46% council tax hike

Whitby Town Council’s draft budget for next year has proposed an annual council tax increase in the Band D equivalent of £25.68.

If councillors vote to approve the draft budget in January, the council tax would see an annual increase of almost 46 per cent.

Whitby Town Council has said it is facing rising costs and could see its income reduced by almost 20 per cent.

However, some councillors and members of the public have called for an alternative draft budget with a smaller increase in council tax.

Whitby residents have been invited to a town assembly on Tuesday, December 19, to discuss the proposed precept increase.

The assembly will be held in the ballroom of the Royal Hotel, West Cliff.

As it stands, the draft budget would see an almost £90,000 increase in the council’s annual expenditure, rising to £576,925 for 2024-25.

The authority is set to see major increases in its expenditure due to inflation, salaries, town polls, and other projects and upgrades.

The council’s audit costs are projected to rocket from £1,700 a year to £21,700 – an increase of more than 1,176 per cent.

According to town council officials, the audit fee increase is based on a prediction that costs will be incurred to investigate objections raised by an elector with the council’s external auditor.

They said that the total potential fees were currently unknown but had been assumed at £10,000 a year based on fees incurred elsewhere and the possibility of objections regarding current and future accounts.

Coun Asa Jones said: “There is a significant risk that at this town assembly, yet another expensive town poll will be called for.”

Coun Jones, who represents the West Cliff Ward, said: “This course of action will only increase the necessity for a massive increase in the council tax precept by possibly wasting another £7,000 and I suspect just like the last town poll will be rightly ignored by the majority of Whitby people.”

The previous poll saw a turnout of just 3,000 – or 3% – vote on questions about Whitby Town Deal projects and whether the town council should resign en masse.