It’s all-out war in Thornton-le-Dale as a vote to dissolve parish council is overruled and ill-tempered meetings appear online
Walk around the North Yorkshire village of Thornton-le-Dale and the word that comes most readily to mind is genteel. Located on the edge of the North York Moors national park, it boasts the sort of thatched cottages that are evocatively familiar from chocolate boxes. A pretty stream flows slowly through the streets as a stately game of bowls is played amid the sleepy splendour of the local bowling green.
Yet all is not quite as it seems in this sedate corner of rural England. Stories have emerged in the local press of a bitter dispute between some residents and members of the parish council, a vote of no confidence, dark claims that a clerk was hounded out of her job, and grumblings about how the grass is cut.
