People queued out of the door to speak to representatives from the BBC and National Grid Wireless, which owns the TV mast which has been sited on Stainsacre Industrial Estate following a consultation with local organisations and locals two years ago – 63% voted in favour it being there.

Throughout the five hours, advisors were handing out information, explaining options to people and in some cases arranging visits to properties to test signal strength.

The mast had to be moved, according to National Grid Wireless, because it is dangerously close to the cliff edge.

But the general feeling of residents – many of whom said they cannot receive a signal from the new mast – was they were not happy with the options they were being given.

Jim White (66) of Rosedale Close said he has tried to retune his television and has got no signal from the new mast but feels as a pensioner he should not have to pay to get his aerial re-aligned when he already pays his licence fee to the BBC.

“Every resident of Whitby and the surrounding area should write to the MP. We should all refuse to pay for our TV licence until we are given the service we are paying through the nose for,” he said.

“What a complete mess they have made in moving the mast. We have all been conned into paying extortionate bills to have new aerials or if we are exceptionally lucky, existing aerials re-aligned.”

Residents in Sandsend are also experiencing problems with their TV reception.

In the design and planning of the new transmission site at the Business Park, it was recognised the area around Sandsend would probably suffer poorer TV reception as a result of the move.

Outline planning permission was sought for a small relay transmitting station to be built to provide an additional source of TV reception in East Row and Sandsend in the event this station proved to be viable.

But in the past few weeks, following commissioning of the new site at the Business Park, a survey has been carried out to determine whether the additional relay station is viable.

A spokesperson for National Grid Wireless (NGW) said: “Results of the survey have demonstrated only a very small number of properties would benefit from the filler site and as a result, NGW and the broadcasters regret it is unviable for us to build a new relay transmitter at Sandsend.

“The result of this is a small number of households may no longer be able to receive adequate terrestrial TV signals. We have written directly to those households concerned.”

The spokesperson said there are a number of options people can consider including checking all available sources of TV signals rather than just those coming from the new mast although a small number of people will not be able to do this and will have to get a satellite dish installed to get a good picture.