A ceremonial lamp that has stood outside the home of whoever is Mayor of Ripon for about a century is to be put in storage — possibly for good.

The lamp shines outside the home of the mayor to identify the city’s first citizen. It is moved each year to whoever is elected to the position.

However, the cost of sustaining it became politicised in the row that erupted between two warring factions on the city council last year, and now its days could be numbered.

North Yorkshire Council usually pays the annual relocation cost, but last year’s resignation of Councillor Jackie Crozier as mayor mid-term raised the prospect of the lamppost having to be moved a second time.

This time the cost of £6,799, including VAT, would have been footed by Ripon taxpayers.

The lamppost was subsequently never moved and remains outside Cllr Crozier’s home.

At a Ripon City Council meeting on Monday (April 13), Cllr Andrew Williams, who will become the next mayor in May, said the pavement outside his house wasn’t wide enough to accommodate the lamppost.

Cllr Williams, who leads the controlling Independent Putting Ripon Before Party Politics group, added he had received a quote for £3,388, including VAT, to remove and store it.

He said he would talk to North Yorkshire Council to “see if they will bear the cost”.

In December, Cllr Barbara Brodigan, a Liberal Democrat who succeeded Cllr Crozier as mayor in September, proposed permanently siting the lamppost outside Ripon Town Hall at a one-off cost of £5,660.

Her suggestion was rejected by Cllr Williams’ group, which instead agreed to set-up a lamppost working group to consider the options.

The working group does not appear to have met, but Cllr Williams said the lamppost had become a “nuisance” and the matter had to be dealt with.

He said:

Cllr Julie Ann Martin-Long said it would be sad if “yet another tradition falls by the wayside”.

Councillors voted to support Cllr Williams’ proposal, meaning the fate of the lamppost is likely to remain uncertain for several months.