Remaining four councillors quit troubled council

'TOXIC ATMOSPHERE' AND 'HOSTILITY' IS BLAMED FOR FORTNIGHT OF DEPARTURES

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT Local democracy reporter [e-mail]

A TROUBLED town council has been thrown further into disarray as its remaining four councillors all resigned.

Yarm Town Council was rocked by the resignations of seven of its members two weeks ago. Now it has emerged the four councillors who were left have quit the council, which is also without a permanent clerk.

The four councillors are councillors Pamela Smailes, Brian Newcombe and husband and wife Bob and Barbara Wegg. They have cited ongoing hostility and a “toxic” atmosphere around the council as reasons for their departures.

Cllr Smailes told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We've all gone now. It’s just a mess.

“To me it was absolutely untenable for four of us to try and work with what was remaining. To be fair the amount of work the interim clerk was having to do was unbelievable and it wasn’t fair to her.”

She said the remaining four faced hostility, with a meeting that proved fractious last week: “It’s not worth it for my mental health. It got to Friday and I just thought, ‘I don’t need this any more.

“It’s gone on for years. The council is non-productive because you're fighting against each other all the time.

“I think whoever comes on to Yarm Town Council is going to face hostility. I just hope Yarm people can move on and maybe a new council can do some good. I wish anybody who goes into it good luck.”