Scarborough Council ‘envisages’ three-day hearing on Whitby Harbour legal dispute

An update on the Whitby Harbour legal case has been given to members of Scarborough Council’s Audit Committee at a meeting on Thursday January 26.

Councillors were told that the authority is currently “finalising evidence” for a further submission regarding the legal objection which is set to go to court.

The long-running dispute centres on an objection made by the Fight4Whitby pressure group which argues that more income has been taken out of the harbour by the council than has been spent on it.

The group launched a legal challenge in 2016 based on the 1905 Whitby Urban District Council Act. The local legislation states that income from Whitby harbour should be used within the harbour.

The dispute has left the council’s accounts dating back to 2015/16 pending approval.

An update on the ongoing dispute and the authority’s “court application” was provided by the council’s head of legal and governance, Carol Rehill who told the committee: “It was agreed that the council would commence proceedings no later than December 31, 2021, bringing Part 8 proceedings rather than seek a declaration by way of judicial review and extend the scope of the declaration.

“And [it would] extend the scope of the declaration to not just the car parks but to include the entire extent of the Whitby Harbour undertaking.”

The head of legal said that the authority filed its evidence in June 2022 following which the objector’s evidence and acknowledgement were served at the end of last year.

The committee was told that Scarborough Council is “currently finalising evidence which is due towards the end of February”.

Ms Rehill added: “The objector will then be given the opportunity to respond and file additional evidence at the beginning of May.

“At the minute we are trying to reach an agreement with the objector’s solicitors on the areas of dispute and consequential directions, which means that we may not require a case management conference which is currently envisaged to take place in May 2023.

“The dates for the hearing will then be set after that. I cannot at this point say with certainty when that hearing will be, but we envisage that it will be a three-day hearing.”

An objection has also been made regarding Scarborough Harbour and the committee was told that it is “similar” to the Whitby Harbour objection “in respect of some historic local legislation relating to the treatment of income from Scarborough Harbour”.

Ms Rehill added that the council is currently “working through a response” and as such could not reveal further details.

Both cases are set to be ongoing when Scarborough Council is abolished on April 1 as part of a local government shakeup which will see the creation of a new county-wide North Yorkshire Council.