The majority of voters who took part in a parish poll in Ripon yesterday say they have no confidence in the Mayor.
But the turnout was just 4.66%, a total of 592 votes, 271 backing the Lib Dem, Cllr Barbara Brodigan, 317 against. There were 4 spoiled votes.
Just under 13,000 people were eligible to vote.
The question on the ballot paper was: ‘Do you have confidence in Councillor Brodigan?’
The poll was proposed by resident Brian McHugh and backed by 13 other local people. That is all that was needed to go ahead with the vote.
He told YorkMix Radio: “Obviously the result tonight means some people might say that it’s not massively valid because of the roughly 5% turnout.
“From my perspective, those are 5% of the Ripon electorate who chose to come out and vote tonight. Therefore, I genuinely think that it is valid.
“Now I think all that indicates really is that there’s a lot to be done to regain and rebuild public trust in local politics, and hopefully the Mayor will take that information away tonight, absorb it, and then put things into action in order to try and restore trust in her.”
Cllr Brodigan told YorkMix: “The result of the poll was that 2.5% of the voting population of Ripon do not have confidence in Councillor Barbara Brodigan. The role of mayor was not questioned.
“We do not have the exact cost of the poll yet, but the Returning Officer last night indicated that it would be between £5,000 and £6,000. A complete waste of public money.”
The result of a parish poll does not force Cllr Brodigan to take any action.
She told us: “I was elected democratically for both roles so why would I resign?”
