Mayfield ward by-election.

Rumours are reaching TWI that a byelection has been called to fill the vacant Scarborough Borough Council seat in Mayfield ward Whitby.

No news yet on the Scarborough Borough Council news website.

SBC plc?

For a while now TWI correspondents have been trying to get at the truth behind a series of entries in the business listing Dun and Bradstreet.

They concern 25 listings of companies reported to be belonging to Scarborough Borough Council and listing SBC officers as directors. The listings are vague. SBC have repeatedly denied that any of the companies exist but Dun and Bradstreet, which was founded in 1841 and has a worldwide reputation for providing accurate information about businesses, insists that the listings are reliable and that the companies named exist.

SBC was informed about these listings in a letter on 29th March, and at the time of writing appears to have done nothing to ask D&B to remedy the misinformation about SBC companies which, SBC insists, are figments of D&B’s corporate imagination. TWI will be checking further with Dun and Bradstreet in the new year.

Anyone with information can contact TWI in confidence through thewhitbyindependent-at-googlemail.com (replace -at- with @)

Numbers: £6000.

The amount filched by Scarborough Borough Council from Whitby Harbour to make up the deficit at Scarborough Harbour.

Were Whitby Harbour in good condition this would be reprehensible enough, but as TWI has reported here, here, here, here, here, here and here, the harbour is closer to ruin than repair.

Of course, Scarborough Borough Council has defied government orders to turn over harbours to local control, citing as its reasons the fact that SBC has two harbours under its control. The fact that SBC thinks that Whitby Harbour has enough of a surplus to save Scarborough Harbour’s blushes, while Whitby Harbour itself is in a state of such dereliction tells you all you need to know about SBC’s concern for Whitby’s infrastructure.

An idiot could see that Whitby Harbour can’t spare £6,000. Why can’t Scarborough Borough Councillors and officers?

The cargo shed: first reactions.

Local campaigner Richard Ineson is unimpressed over at Emails to TWI. He highlights a few other ways Whitby is picking up the bill for SBC’s misrule of his town.

He makes the point: where were Whitby’s councillors through this process. And if they can’t restrain Scarborough Borough Council from this kind of financial and infrastructure vandalism, what is the point of them. Whitby SBC councillors, what did you do to secure a better outcome for Whitby than a car park? TWI will print your responses.

Has Boulby been beaten in the dark matter race?

Boulby Mine near Staithes hosts a lab that is looking for the missing 96% of the universe – so-called dark matter. The Boulby Underground Labs run by Sheffied University operate highly sensitive detectors which look for elusive dark matter particles.

However, in news breaking today it has been suggested that Cryogenic Dark Matter Research, an American team with detectors down an iron ore mine in Minnesota, may have beaten Boulby to the goal – they are 75% certain that they have detected the elusive weakly interactive massive particles which pass through the earth and us without being noticed.

MP supports home schoolers.

Whitby MP Robert Goodwill closed the Parliamentary year by speaking in support of parents who educate their children at home.

Mr. Goodwill supported a petition that asked the government not act on the Badman Report, which would give local authority inspectors right of access to home schoolers’ homes. Mr. Goodwill said that 42 people from Scarborough and Whitby had signed the petition.

Snow news updates.

North Yorkshire County Council has tweeted a link to driving reports. More snow expected today and temps below zero throughout the day.

Monkshaven café on Church Street has showed the blitz spirit, tweeting that they’re open and suggesting you pop in for a hot chocolate.

If you’ve any news or updates you want us to report, tweet us @thewhitbyindy, leave a comment or email to thewhitbyindependent-at-googlemail.com (replace -at- with @).

Happy birthday fish and chips.

As the dish that powers Whitby’s economy approaches its 150th birthday, the BBC looks at the disputed origins of fish and chips in Britain.

Snow closes six schools in Whitby and villages.

NYCC’s website reports that six schools have closed due to the bad weather: Fylingdales, Lealholm, Lythe, Sleights, Stakesby and St Hedda’s in Egton Bridge.

Snow report: Whitby people ’sensible’ say North Yorks Police

Despite 8 inches of snow and the A169 Whitby to Pickering Road being closed overnight, a spokeman for North Yorkshire police said that there had so far been no serious incidents on Whitby roads.

“People in Whitby have been sensible and stayed in or driven carefully,” a spokesman said. He said that there had been a spate of minor accidents across the county but nothing serious reported and no road closures in the Whitby area.

The severity of the snow in the are led to the North Yorkshire Moors being featured on BBC Radio 4 bulletins.

Breaking news: SBC announces Cargo Shed death knell.

Ugly, unwanted and for the chop. The Cargo Shed on Endeavour Wharf is to be demolished, SBC announced today

This just in from Scarborough Borough Council Press Office:

Following many months of speculation, uncertainty and deliberation, Scarborough Borough Council has decided to take down and remove the transit shed and weighbridge from Endeavour Wharf.

The shed, which was constructed in 1996 to enable Whitby Harbour to handle cargo, was originally operated by Associated British Ports. Over the years however the cargo trade has dwindled, with operators favouring the larger commercial ports elsewhere on the north east coastline. Consequently Associated British Ports pulled out of Whitby leaving the shed largely unused.

In 2008, Scarborough Borough Council consulted with the public upon a draft Ports Strategy which included the shed. On the basis of responses received the removal of the transit shed and weighbridge were incorporated within this final document.

Acting on this, the council decided to ‘test’ the market in a two prong approach seeking tenders for both disposal of the shed and an option to elicit any interest in using the shed for ports related purposes. Both options generated interest from, amongst others, local companies which included boat building and repairs and also non ports related uses. It also created an unexpected interest from the off-shore wind sector.

Since tenders were received the council has been giving due consideration as to the merits of each ‘offer’ including financial, legal and strategic implications. At Cabinet held on 15 December councillors agreed to accept a tender for the removal of the shed and weighbridge. Following contract procedures works will be put in hand in the new year.

Despite this decision, the council has indicated that Endeavour Wharf will remain a commercial wharf for the foreseeable future, with the site continuing to accommodate berthing of vessels, storage of fishing gear and car parking.

Councillor Peter Popple, Cabinet Member for Harbours is pleased that Cabinet made an informed decision about the shed and is satisfied that this meets the aspirations of the majority of people in Whitby as well as fulfilling the council’s objectives.

“I really hope that this will be seen as a milestone decision for Whitby and the harbour and that it will be well received by those who have long thought that the shed’s existence has done little to enhance the visual or economic well-being of the town. Endeavour Wharf will continue to serve the existing interests of harbour users and the council remains receptive towards ports related uses which will provide added value to the town, including the off-shore wind farm industry.”

TWI will be asking Whitby councillors for their reaction to this news. The SBC press release does not clear up the questions which have surrounded the tendering process, and questions have to be asked about the last sentence: “including the off-shore wind farm industry.”

At last time of asking, there was no substance to the story reported elsewhere that a major firm with links to the wind farm industry was set to make large investment in Endeavour Wharf and create jobs. The removal of the eyesore is to be welcomed.

Facebook page defames local campaigner.

Local film-maker and campaigner Nigel Ward has confirmed that a Facebook page containing defamatory allegations about himself and inflammatory statements about Muslims has been reported to the authorities. The page about Nigel is duplicated below with his permission.

In TWI’s absence…

reports reach us that sheets of waste asbestos have been transported through the streets of Whitby in open-topped lorries. That’ll be the asbestos that causes asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.

The website Wasteonline tells us that:

The use and management of asbestos is highly regulated in the UK. Regulations tightly constrain asbestos management, transportation and disposal. The classification of asbestos as special waste, under the Special Waste Regulations 1996, requires that a specialist asbestos contractor must be used, except in strictly defined circumstances. The regulations also stipulate that asbestos waste can only be transported by carriers licensed to transport special waste and disposal must take place at designated sites.

If the eyewitness reports are correct, these rules apear to have wholly disregarded. TWI will be following the eyewitness reports and asking the people concerned whether all the permits were in place and this dangerous waste material was handled in accordance with the law which states:

Asbestos waste is categorised as special waste and is therefore subject to strict consignment note requirements for generation and transport. Before removal from site, the waste will normally be double bagged and labelled to show the origin of the waste before being consigned for final disposal to a licensed asbestos site.

Footage exists suggesting that the Whitby asbestos was not normally handled.

SBC looking for £500,000 savings.

TWI recently overheard an exasperated SBC employee complaining that the council was needed to make half a million pounds in savings.

TWI would be happy to hear of examples of SBC waste which could be cut to save the hard-pressed council tax payers of Whitby and district some money.

More excellent Whitby Harbour maintenance and health and safety from SBC

A broken timber baulk tied to the fuel berth.

The fuel berth is heavily used and probably one of the areas of the harbour where fishermen and sailors are at most risk but judging by these photos is subject to the same degree of SBC neglect as the rest of Whitby Harbour.

This is supposed to stop boats drifting under the fuel berth.

Rotten timber...broken...neglect...SBC.

Pics © Ken Graham.

Stakesby fire

Ken Graham writes:

A huge haystack fire damages a Stakesby farm.
Flames and crackling from the fire could be heard and seen from all round Whitby as a smoke column rose hundreds of feet into the sky. It is the second time this has happened in a short space of time. Eye witnesses saw 2 horses being rescued but it is has being suggested that there was several horses kept at the farm that may not have escaped. The blaze, which was in a residential area, took several hours to bring under control.

(And reader photos please email to thewhitbyindepenedent@googlemail.com, a pic credit and link to any photostream will be given)

Old St Stephens calling all bards and minstrels.

Old St Stephens, Robin Hoods Bay.

Following the success of the last poetry day, St Stephen’s old church in Robin Hoods Bay will be holding an ‘open pulpit’ music, poetry and storytelling afternoon on Saturday 26 September starting at 2pm.

Organizer Deb Gillanders says all are welcome, whether to watch and listen or to mount the pulpit steps to sing, recite poetry or spin a tale. The church has no electricity, so performers have to get into the pulpit and project.

Deb says it’s easy to get over ‘pulpit fright’ as you’re standing 6 feet above the audience ‘and the acoustics are great’.

Poll results

Should SBC Independent Councillors go into coalition with the Conservative group?

Yes 13%
No 87%

Arrangements for the future government of Scarborough Borough

from the last full SBC meeting:

The Council agree to a ‘rainbow coalition’ to which all
groups/affiliations are invited to form the administration of the
Council with the membership of its Cabinet based on ‘proportional
representation’. That the Council also agree the principle, that during these
administrative arrangements, to use proportional representation as a
guide in the selection of the chairs and vice chairs for the eleven
formal committees (4 x Area Committees, 4 x O/S, Planning and
Development and Audit Committee) of the Council and that through the
Group Leaders and Deputy Group Leaders of each respective Group or
Affiliation work is carried out to enable recommendations to be made to
a meeting of this Council on the 7th October to include the following:-

● Description of the Cabinet Portfolios
● Names of Councillors to the respective Portfolios
● Names for Chairs/Vice Chairs of each of the relevant Committees
● Membership of each of the relevant committees of the Council
● Any changes to the Constitution of the Council that may be
required to permit Cabinet and portfolio holders to exercise their
functions.

See the International Space Station

pass overhead tonight around 9pm, details of the ground track and times here. Look in a South Westerly direction. Whitby has been seen on film by the ISS crew. Thanks to Dr Karen James for the twitter alert.

Chef in search of local produce.

Award-winning chef Rob Green, of Green’s of Whitby has a great classified ad looking for local produce.

Staithes, sewage, Scarborough and signage.

According to SBC, the BBC Panorama programme on sewage contaminated beaches which reported on Staithes

Staithes harbour: don't swim if you value your health.

only partially quoted the response by Scarborough Borough Council’s Tourism Manager. The statement in full is this:

“We do not submit Staithes for any of the beach management awards and we are not legally obliged to provide signage about the water quality.

“However, Scarborough Borough Council does manage 44 miles of coastline and has two Blue Flag and six Quality Coast Award beaches. We promote these beaches and provide the necessary signage and notices to comply with the awards. We display the results at the awarded beaches only because it is part of the Blue Flag Award criteria.”

SBC also said: “Yorkshire Water have confirmed that it is the Environment Agency’s remit to comment on the quality of the bathing water not the local authority’s responsibility.”

Everybody is trying to shift responsibility onto everybody else, but the fact remains that if you swim in Staithes Harbour you run a substantial risk of contracting gastroenteritis and no one in any public office sees fit to warn the public of this.

SBC has ‘no plans to reinstate bridge to East Pier extension.

Stormy times ahead over East Pier

SBC recently confirmed that, depite being responsible for its maintenance for the last 35 years, it has no plans to re-link the East Pier extention to the East Pier as ‘funds would have to be indentified’.

SBC’s neglect left the old bridge in such a state that it was unsafe and had to be removed, and in the absence of public access the east extension’s deterioration has continued to the point where the landward end hangs over a hole in the seabed and a report identified the need to repair the structure as ‘urgent’.

TWI is investigating SBC’s responsibilities in this area, because at some point it will have to hand the port of Whitby over to its new managing board: SBC should have divested itself of control of Whitby harbour years ago but deliberately stalled, many think due to the income from car parking fees. The port area includes the piers and SBC have an obligation to hand the part over in the state in which it inherited it: which includes an East Pier in good repair and open to the public. There are moves afoot (not by Whitby Town Council, obviously) to see whether the town of Whitby could take legal action against SBC for its neglect of our harbour infrastructure.

Staithes ‘the worst beach in England’ for pollution.

Staithes: the water's brown for a nasty reason.

According to BBC Panorama yesterday, which is available to watch on BBC iPlayer for another six days.

Staithes, which remains a registered bathing beach, has failed water quality tests for 17 of the last 21 times it was tested. When Panorama told SBC that they had a beach in this state and that there should signs warning people that the water is potentially harmful, and SBC spokesman claimed that they did not know this was the case.

Who at SBC does not know their job, or has wilfully ignored the data showing that Staithes Beck pollutes Staithes Harbour beyond the limits for safe bathing and refused to warn the public of the risks they face when swimming at Staithes? That person has just exposed Scarborough Borough Council as being incompetent on national television. TWI assumes that disciplinary action will follow for this public, prime time humiliation for Scarborough Borough Council.

Whitby Town Council extraordinary meeting

this evening.

Of course, there is no agenda on the Council’s embarrasingly bad and out of date website, so unless you happen to know a Councillor or are in a circle of people privileged to be informed, you will struggle to find out what the Councillors will be talking about.

TWI understands that it is to consider:
• The future of housing at Cook’s World (AKA the Engine Shed).
• Public access to Whitby Town Council office.

Scarborough Borough Councillors carving up power today.

Spies from Scarborough tell TWI that the leaders and deputy leaders of the ‘Rainbow Coalition’ are today meeting to carve up the cabinet seats.

Rumour has it that the Conservatives have been agitating for a tenth cabinet portfolio, this new portfolio to be awarded to the Conservatives so that they have five cabinet portfolio votes against five Independent/LibDem/Green votes.

As TWI reported…

two days ago it’s a ‘rainbow coalition’ for Scarborough Borough Council. The word is that the deal has been done. The Conservatives will have 4 cabinet seats, the ‘Independents’ 3, the Liberal Democrats 1 and the Greens 1. The two non-aligned Independents and two Labour Party councillors now form the opposition.

Grand Turk damaged in collision.

Grand Turk entering Whitby Harbour November 2007

Whitby’s semi-permanent tall ship resident the Grand Turk has been damaged in a collision in Great Yarmouth. Watch video of the collision here.


Turk was t-boned by the gaff ketch Excelsior which is operated by the Cirdan Sailing Trust.

The collision snapped Excelsior’s bowsprit and and brought its topmast crashing down. Grand Turk is in Great Yarmouth to take part in a maritime festival and to be drydocked for her Maritime and Coastguard Agency safety inspection.

TWI is calling to find out the extent of the damage. H/t Ken Graham.

Sewage on beaches: BBC Panorama tonight.

Yorkshire Water discharges mixed sewage and storm water into Whitby Harbour ‘at times of high rainfall’. This, along with the uncontrolled pollution from Bagdale Beck results in levels of harmful bacteria that regularly exceed EU bathing regulations.

Panorama investigates the problem of Britain’s sewage-contaminated beaches tonight on BBC1 8.30.

The programme states that where sewage does spill onto beaches, swimmers have a 1 in 20 chance of contracting gastroenteritis.

Exclusive: Conservatives and Independents form IndyCon SBC coalition. (Updated)

Scarborough Borough Council’s minority Conservative group have clung onto power by entering a powersharing coalition with the Independent group.

The Conservatives’ grip on the cabinet was weakened in the wake of Independent Sandra Turner winning the Streohshalh byelection in Whitby and a Green taking a former Conservative Scarborough seat in another SBC byelection. It was expected that the Conservative group led by Councillor Tom Fox would be replaced by a rainbow coalition of Independents, Greens and Liberal Democrats.

However, on Saturday evening a reliable source told TWI to expect the coalition announcement on Monday. This will be a coalition between the two largest groups on Scarborough Borough Council and will do little to dispel the widely-held view that many Independent councillors hold strong Conservative sympathies.

TWI will be contacting both of Whitby’s Independent Councillors to ask for their comments on the IndyCon (© TWI) coalition. TWI readers can register their opinion on the Independents’ actions with our poll in the right sidebar.

Related posts: Conservatives on the edge of losing power.
Fox hunting after Scarborough changes political spots.

Edit: sources are now saying that Lib Dems and Greens are joining the coalition and that the Conservatives will not be in the majority, but will hold more cabinet seats than any of the other parties involved in the deal. Horse trading appears to have been continuing iover the weekend with decisions to be finalized tomorrow. The Labour Party councillors have declined to join any coalition.