Borough councillors back creating a new council in Scarborough

Scarborough Borough Council councillors backed a motion on the creation of a new town council in Scarborough.

At the full council meeting on 6 September 2021, borough councillors unanimously passed the motion to start the process for the creation of a new town council by May 2023, when the county council and district councils will be replaced by a single unitary authority for North Yorkshire.

Conservative councillors had originally put forward a motion calling for a referendum to be carried out before interim authority was established, in response Labour councillors proposed an amended motion which was approved unanimously.

Scarborough and Harrogate are currently the only towns in North Yorkshire which are not served by a local (parish or town) council.

Earlier this year, the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) responded to the government’s consultation on proposals for locally-led reorganisation in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset, including calling for the creation of new local councils in all unparished areas.