Fight4Whitby: Whitby Harbour campaigner on why she ploughed thousands of pounds of her own money fighting for justice

It’s indicative of how strongly they feel that Sue, ex mayor John Freeman and other supporters, have put in £50,000 over the past eight years to fight the case. She cashed in her Premium Bonds - emergency money set aside for her retirement.

Sue says she is doing it because "if they don't maintain the piers and extensions the whole town will flood. “We just want to see Whitby handed over to the next generation".

Her story shows just how difficult it is for an ordinary citizen to object to council accounts. A gagging clause (under Schedule 11 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014) was applied by the council’s external auditors Mazars early on, with Sue only allowed to discuss the matter with her lawyers – or face criminal prosecution.

Not only is it highly offputting, it killed off publicity. In the first year support group, Fight4Whitby, raised £23,000 but by 2020 it had dwindled to just £400. Over eight years Scarborough Council spent £280,000 in audit and legal costs on the case.

Today Fight4Whitby is once again appealing for help to raise thousands towards ongoing legal costs.

The rules also say Sue had to object as an individual - taking on all the stress. Because councils can pursue objectors for legal costs - potentially bankrupting them - few make it as far as court. The threat of losing everything hanging over Sue only lifted two years ago after a councillor got Scarborough Council to pledge not to pursue her for costs.

At the outset Sue naively thought the auditor would do the "detective work". In fact it's up to the objector to provide the evidence. And although she had to respond to anything sent by the auditor within 21 days, this didn't seem to apply to the council, she says, and the case dragged on for years. At one point Sue even had to threaten the auditors with a judicial review to get the case to progress. She said: "You'd think rather than battling it out in a court paying lawyers it would be possible to sit down with someone in the council who knows the harbours and can agree what is and what is not harbour land.”

Few have the expertise to take on such a complex case, but Sue, a former strategic planning manager for IBM, had the patience to delve through mountains of paperwork and thousands of back copies of the Whitby Gazette, kept at the town's Literary and Philosophical Society.

These proved useful sources of evidence, penned by reporters who attended every council meeting, and invaluable when council documents Sue asked for could not be traced. Secretary of Fight4Whitby Joyce Stangoe says the process "makes it difficult for anyone to take a council on": "It is just impossible. I think they were hoping Sue would just go away." Sue is confident that when the case comes to court justice will prevail: "I'd have not kept going without Fight4Whitby behind me, particularly John Freeman. This leg could cost £50,000, maybe more. It would be lovely to get a bit back but I don't have kids to leave it to, I feel sorry for the Judge with all the paperwork. I'll be glad when it's over and I can get on with my life."

North Yorkshire Council declined to comment ahead of the case. To donate visit www.crowdjustice.com/case/fight-for-whitby