Future of Whitby consultation: what people said on schools, affordable homes and park and ride

This consultation, which utilised an online map of the Whitby Parish, was advertised online and via posters around the area, with paper slips also available in some community locations.

There were two components – clicking on places around the town and giving an opinion about that place, and secondly of four education locations – Caedmon College, Eskdale School, Sixth Form, and Maritime Academy (Town Deal) – and giving an opinion on current proposals for those sites.

In the places consultation a total of 601 places were commented on, signifying that up to 4.6% of the population had participated.

Andy Jefferson, retired IT consultant and WCN trustee, said: “Contrast this with the 0.2-0.4% typically answering the NYC Let’s Talk surveys, achieved with no funded advertising, solely relying on volunteers, and very little co-operation from either Whitby Town Council or North Yorkshire Council (NYC).

"In terms of schools only five pupils out of 650 at Caedmon took part, and none from Eskdale, despite promises from the schools.”

He said housing came out as the most topical issue, with a consistent desire for truly affordable homes to buy as well as having social rented houses, with an urgent need to halt the feeding of the holiday let market.

There was also strong desire to protect and enhance the little green space we do have, with two of the sites ‘reserved’ by the former Scarborough Borough Council for their Better Homes receiving unanimous support to remain as green space.

Mr Jefferson added: “There were significant comments about the state of the public transport system, with it being considered as not fit for purpose by residents, with a lack of bus coverage and poor timetabling.

"The road infrastructure also had many problem areas marked, particularly junctions along the A171 between Four Lane ends and Whitby Business Park, as well as the end of Love Lane, with the town not being viewed as particularly pedestrian friendly.

“People also see parking as a major problem, with significant support for having larger Park-and-Ride facilities on both sides of the town, as well as the wider issue of campervan parking.

“The years of underinvestment in infrastructure around the town was highlighted, with the Pavilion, Swing Bridge and Cliff Lift receiving notable comments about the need to maintain and enhance what the town has.

In the education sites consultation, 155 responses were received: Eskdale (12% agree, 82% disagree), Caedmon (18% agree, 71% disagree), Sixth Form (18% agree, 79% disagree), and Maritime Academy (48% agree, 48% disagree).

Mr Jefferson said this showed the level of dissatisfaction about the secondary schools merger plan, which was recently approved, and “perceived lack of openness” from NYC and the Whitby Secondary Partnership.

He concluded: “WCN has published all results from this exercise on our website, freely viewable by all.

“From here we look forward to NYC acting on these results, and this will be the real test of whether they really are ‘the most local of all councils’ .

"We are also considering expanding the exercise to the whole Whitby district subject to obtaining funding, and interest from parishes.”