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23
Oct
Voters in Ripon’s Ure Bank ward will be sent polling cards soon for a pivotal by-election that could affect the balance of power on the city council.
Ripon City Council is split into two factions so the outcome will have a significant impact on the political future.
An item on the agenda at Monday evening's latest extraordinary council meeting asked councillors to "consider whether polling cards should be issued" for the upcoming election.
A member of the public who lives in the ward said:
I am passionately opposed to any move that might be made to prevent polling cards from being issued. It is a vital part of the election process and a way of raising awareness of the council and its work. Not everybody is on the internet and very few people read local newspapers these days.
The item was put on the agenda because of the cost of producing and delivering polling cards through Royal Mail and a figure of up to £7,000 was mentioned.
Following further brief discussion, councillors voted unanimously to confirm that polling cards will be sent to all addresses in the Ure Bank Ward.
Here is the result of the previous election in 2022.
The May 2022 result from the Ure Bank Ward.
The election was called following the resignation of Councillor Jo Bate, who served as an independent for more than 10 years before joining the group of non-aligned councillors headed by Liberal Democrat Cllr Barbara Brodigan.
As exclusively revealed by the Stray Ferret yesterday, four-time Ripon mayor Sid Hawke has also abandoned the non-aligned group to re-join the alliance of independent councillors headed by Councillor Andrew Williams, who is a member of the Conservative Party.
With the balance of power on a knife edge, there is intense focus on the Ure Bank by-election.
At the May 2022 parish elections, the candidates who stood under the banner of Independent Putting Ripon Before Party Politics won all three seats up for grabs.
Across the city, the Minster, Moorside and Spa wards saw eight of the nine available seats won by the independents, while Barbara Brodigan achieved a breakthrough for the Liberal Democrats in the Spa ward, where she topped the poll and was elected alongside independents Jackie Crozier and Stuart Flatley.
In May 2022, Cllr Brodigan was also elected to North Yorkshire Council, where she represents the Spa and Ure Bank division.
It is something of an understatment to say that a lot has happened on the political manoeuvring front in Ripon over the past three years.
Andrew Williams, who was elected as an independent to the new North Yorkshire Council criticised by political opponents when he joined the Conservative and Independents Group at County Hall.
His move prompted an alliance of disaffected independent councillors on Ripon City Council to begin planning a non-aligned breakaway faction.
With a controlling majority in place, the group voted in Cllr Brodigan as mayor and council chair and amended the council's standing orders to abolish the roles of leader and deputy leader — positions held respectively by Cllr Williams and Cllr Peter Horton.
The group also dissolved the staffing committee and announced Cllr Bate would be chair of a newly-formed human resources committee.
Cllr Bate did not attend the meeting and announced afterwards she had resigned as a councillor - a move that led to the calling of the November 20 by-election.
Though the committee and its membership has yet to be confirmed, the non-aligned councillors and Cllr Brodigan voted in private session at the meeting on Monday (October 20) to appoint Adam Chugg as temporary clerk, to fill the vacancy caused by the departure of chief officer Paula Benson, who resigned from her £57,000 a year job in September.
The series of extraordinary meetings have brought many more members of public to the council chamber to see their elected representatives in action.
With yesterday's news of Cllr Hawke's return to the indendents group, the non-aligned councillors are now in the minority.
Over the past five weeks. numerous chaotic extraordinary meetings have been held in the council chamber at Ripon Town Hall.
Most have been witnessed by large numbers of Ripon residents angered by the way that former mayor of 132 days Jackie Crozier was facing a vote of no confidence for reasons that have never bewen made public,
The tables have turned and Cllr Brodigan is facing a vote of no confidence in her leadership at a meeting to be held in Holy Trinity Church on the evening of November 3.
What infleunce, if any, that meeting will have on voters in the ward, will only be known after the by-election has taken place.
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