Remaining four councillors resign from Yarm Town Council

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 which proved fractious last week, adding: “It’s not worth it for my mental health. It got to Friday and I just thought, ‘I don’t need this anymore.’

“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.”

Cllr Barbara Wegg said: “We just can’t carry on because of the hostility. It’s just been awful.

“There’s nothing we can do. We’ve got to pack in because it’s your mental health, you can’t keep it up.”

Cllr Bob Wegg added: “We couldn’t go on with all the abuse that we’re still getting. It’s just absolutely unbelievable.”

And Cllr Newcombe said: “It’s toxic. It was so dysfunctional. It’s been dysfunctional for many years.

“I became the chair on the Tuesday and I resigned on the Friday. We just thought we’d better go.

“I love Yarm, but it’s just not worth being on the council. It’s just not worth the grief we were getting on Facebook and the abuse we were getting.

“It’s just bitter hatred, nastiness, people fighting against each other. The whole thing needs disbanding and Stockton taking it over, but I don’t think they will.”

The council had seen heated exchanges, factions and talk of efforts to wipe out “bullying, intimidation and undermining”.

Yarm Town Council members (l-r) Councillors Pam Smailes, Barbara Wegg and Bob Wegg

In late 2023, meetings heard references to alleged persecution, questions over finances and “accusations of mismanagement, misrepresentation, poor governance”, but councillors expressed a hope to move on and work together. Two councillors resigned that year for health or personal reasons, both referring to difficulties and disruption in the council.

Earlier this month, it emerged that one rancorous meeting, along with emails and social media comments, had led to legal action.

Cllr Peter Monck made a statement retracting and apologising for allegations he made against Cllrs Smailes, Wegg and Wegg in 2023.

In the statement made to settle their legal claims against him alleging defamation and harassment, he accepted his comments caused them serious harm and led to them being subjected to abuse by members of the public, and he agreed to pay their legal costs. The three claimants said they had sued to clear their names.

Days later Cllr Monck and six other town councillors – chairman and mayor Cllr John Coulson, who continues to represent Yarm as a member of Stockton Council, with Cllrs Philip Addison, Steve Atkinson, Marje Blair, Joyce Hardy and Yvonne Pybus – all resigned.

Cllr Coulson said they took the decision “with regret” after taking advice on how to deal with the situation in the town council.

Cllr Coulson said at the time: “They feel they can no longer continue working in their voluntary roles, as, in their individual opinions, their positions have become increasingly unproductive.

“The councillors have worked extremely hard, despite the well-documented difficulties of Yarm Town Council. The councillors apologise to residents of Yarm who voted for them.

“It is the view of all of the resigning councillors that, earlier this year, YTC lost a very good town clerk who had pulled together the 2025 Remembrance Sunday, annual fair and Christmas lights switch-on events with incredible results and first-class feedback.

“The resigning councillors were very sad to see the town clerk go, but completely understood her reasons, and would like to place on record their thanks for the hard work undertaken, often, in their view, in the most challenging of circumstances. We individually look forward to the future, and redirecting our energies towards more productive outlets.”

He said today: “We left because the situation became untenable and in some ways impossible to carry on. We couldn’t progress and proceed how things were, and in order to try and resolve this we thought it best to leave the council and let the other four people run the council as they saw fit.”

Stockton Council has posted notices of the 11 vacancies, saying elections will be held if 10 electors write to the proper officer of the council. If no request is submitted by the published deadlines, replacement councillors will be appointed.