FORMER Mayor of Harrogate Richard Whitfield has quit the council after being declared bankrupt.

The resignation of Mr Whitfield, 64, as Tory member for Lower Nidderdale ward after 15 years was confirmed yesterday by council chief executive Mick Walsh.

A by-election to fill the vacancy is expected to be called shortly.

A bachelor who had worked as an international finance and business consultant, Mr Whitfield was a councillor in Huddersfield and fought Goole for the Conservatives at a parliamentary election before moving to live in the Harrogate area.

Prior to coming to Harrogate he served as a member of Huddersfield County Borough Council and later Ramsgate Borough Council. He was Parliamentary Conservative candidate for the Goole County Constituency in 1966.

Mr Whitfield's first attempt to gain a Harrogate Council seat ended in defeat in Harlow ward in 1976 but he won Lower Nidderdale in 1983 and defended the seat at subsequent elections.

He had been due to face the electorate again in the year 2000.

He marked his year of office as mayor, in 1993/94, with a number of charity events including lying in a bath in a town centre shop window and using his 16 stone frame to test beds.

Mr Whitfield, who was adjudged bankrupt at Harrogate County Court earlier this month, lives in Low Laithe, near Pateley Bridge. He was not available for comment.

Harrogate Borough Council said Mr Whitfield had been "a hard-working and effective local councillor for many years and he served with distinction as mayor."

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