A MEETING of Skipton Town Council to work on next year's budget was 'abandoned' after 'communications between members broke down'.

Last Thursday's meeting of the full council, which was chaired by the mayor, Cllr Sheila Bentley, and attended by seven other councillors, lasted just an hour before it ended, shortly after members voted on a failed proposal to end the council's involvement in the switching on of the Christmas lights.

Draft minutes of the meeting state that Councillor Claire Nash's proposal to 'delete the Christmas light switch on budget line and to move the budget into community grants to allow communities to host their own event' was lost by five to two.

Cllr Aidan Higgins spoke against the proposal, saying he had not had not heard of a town that did not have Christmas lights and switch on events in the UK.

Deputy mayor Cllr Peter Madeley said the event should stay, but suggested a reduction in the budget; while Cllr Robert Heseltine said he was a big supporter of the Christmas events in Skipton.

The minutes state: "Officers tried to continue the discussion and explanation of the draft budget, communications between members broke down and the meeting was abandoned at 8pm."

Members had been presented with a draft budget for the 2024/25 year prepared by chief officer Louise Close and finance manager, Helen Marshall, with the intention that members discuss all its aspects.

Cllr Nash and Cllr Stephen Morton said they did not believe enough information had been given and information from the November full council meeting had been left out.

The minutes state: "The chief officer confirmed that the draft budget and supporting documents had been issued at the beginning of November, four weeks prior, with a notice to ask members to look over the detail and confirm back what further information was needed or different detail before the summons was issued seven days prior to the meeting."

Cllr Morton said it had not been intended as a criticism, but that 'no further request of what information was missing was provided', according to the minutes.

The meeting had been expected to go into private session to discuss the draft budget, because of expected discussion of staff structure, but no resolution was passed as there were no members of the public, or press, at the meeting. The meeting was also not recorded.

At November's full meeting of the council, deputy mayor, Peter Madeley, said all areas of the council's budget needed to be scrutinised if the council was to avoid a 'worse-case scenario' of increasing its precept by eight percent.