Calvin Robinson Chief Reporter, Author at The Stray Ferret

County to draw up plans for single North Yorkshire council

North Yorkshire County Council will draw up plans for a single authority to serve the county in a move which would see Harrogate Borough Council scrapped.

It comes as part of local council reorganisation plans requested by the government in order to reach a devolution deal. Earlier this week, NYCC said it would bid for more than £2 billion of investment as part of the shake-up of local government.

Simon Clark, local government minister, told council leaders across the county earlier this month that a change in the number of councils will be required for any devolved powers to be agreed.

It would mean that the county council and its seven districts, including Harrogate Borough Council, would be scrapped and replaced with a single authority which would provide services for the entire county.

The move would see the new council work alongside City of York Council in a proposed devolution deal.

A final decision on whether to submit the bid to government for a unitary authority will be made by the council’s executive at a later date. Councils have until September to submit any proposal.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“The timing is critical as we drive post-pandemic recovery and York and North Yorkshire need to act now to ensure we are not left behind.

“We have therefore today instructed officers to put together a business case for a single strong, sustainable council for everyone in North Yorkshire, based on the current map and population.

“Not only will a single council based on the county’s current identity, simplify things for people and businesses – renewing our economic fortunes following the shock delivered by the pandemic – it will protect and strengthen high-quality frontline services.

“It will also unleash the county’s potential and deliver very significant financial savings by ending duplication, improving efficiency and driving innovation.

“We estimate savings in excess of £25m every year, offering the best value for money for everyone. No other bid would be able to match these benefits. Equally importantly it will protect a global and recognised brand which is crucial for our visitor economy.”

Devolution bid

Meanwhile, county councillors pressed ahead with proposals for a devolution deal earlier this week when the executive agreed a list of “asks” worth £2.4 billion.

More powers over transport, skills, regeneration and energy are included in the submission, as well as a mayoral funding pot worth £750 million over 25 years.

All councils across the county have to agree to the submission before it can be put on the table to government.

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Harrogate Convention Centre: £46.8m renovation moves a step closer

A £46.8 million renovation of Harrogate’s Convention Centre moved a step closer this evening.

Paula Lorimer, director of the centre, told the meeting the investment was necessary for the success of the district.

A full council meeting next week will now have the final say on whether to spend £1.1 million on detailed designs, a feasibility study and full economic impact assessment of the benefits of renovation.

Ms Lorimer said:

“We need this redevelopment not only to drive more conferences, but for the district and the community.

“We run school events, remembrance events, entertainment, orchestras and community groups.

“We do a great deal to support the community and the revenue we provide goes back into the council.

“What comes into us ripples out into the district. We need a successful HCC.”

Paula Lorimer, director of Harrogate Convention Centre.

A confidential cabinet report leaked to the Stray Ferret warned the centre “will not survive” unless councillors approved the project.

While the move to invest in the centre has been welcomed by local businesses and borough councillors, others have criticised the decision.

Eamon Parkin, Mayor of Ripon, said the investment would not benefit people in the city and twas a waste of money.

In an exclusive interview with the Stray Ferret, Phil Willis, former MP for Harrogate, called on “amateur councillors” to step back from involvement in the centre.

County council approves £290,000 funding for Welcome to Yorkshire

North Yorkshire County Council has approved more than £290,000 worth of additional funding to under-threat Welcome to Yorkshire following a bailout request from the tourism body.

Senior county councillors today backed further funding for WTY, which faces a £1.4 million funding gap amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The troubled tourism body, which was marred by scandal only last year, revealed the shortfall in July and wrote to council leaders in the county asking for support – of which around £450,000 was needed from authorities in North Yorkshire.

The organisation was deprived of £1 million in business rates after councils in North and West Yorkshire saw a loss of income due to the pandemic. A further £400,000 shortfall was created when WTY suspended its membership fees.

Now the county council’s executive has backed further funding for the organisation.

In addition to the county council’s £84,378 standard yearly subscription, a further £76,600 and £215,000 will now be contributed from the council’s directors of development fund. It takes the total contribution up to £375,978.

Other authorities, such as Rydedale, have refused to give the tourism body any extra funding.

County council offices in Northallerton.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Gareth Dadd, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance at the county council, told an executive meeting yesterday that the funds were not an “open cheque” for WTY.

He said:

“That is an investment in their activities this year and I regard it as an ‘invest to save’.

“Tourism is a large part of our economy and I think it is absolutely vital that we continue to support that organisation.

“It is not an open ended cheque for years to come by any stretch of the imagination and we are looking very closely next year at their recovery plans in terms of their financial management and the outputs they achieve.

“It was my judgement that certainly for this year it was worth supporting, given the £9 billion a year to the Yorkshire economy and the substantial activity within the tourism and leisure sector.”

It comes after WTY was hit by controversy when former boss, Sir Gary Verity, resigned in March 2019 on health grounds but faced allegations of bullying and inappropriately claiming expenses.

Two inquiries carried out after Sir Gary’s resignation cost the tourism body £482,500, and former boss, Paul Scriven, told the House of Lords it had a “culture of toxicity” and misused public funds.

Investigators looked at expenses worth around £900,000, of which £26,000 were of a personal nature. Sir Gary has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

County council bids for £2bn spending in devolution deal

New transport powers, a carbon negative economy and £2 billion worth of spending are among the proposals agreed by North Yorkshire County Council to put to the government as part of a county-wide devolution bid.

The authority’s executive voted through the list of requests, known as “asks”, which outline what the county wants from devolved powers.

It comes as council leaders across the county are pressing ahead with plans for a York and North Yorkshire devolution deal with a directly elected mayor.

More powers over transport, skills, regeneration and energy are included in the submission, as well as a mayoral funding pot worth £750 million over 25 years.

Further funding proposals include a five-year transport settlement worth £250 million, £520 million of devolved funding for fibre connectivity and a £230 million fund for the new mayor to share between the county’s towns.

Each authority across the region has to agree to the proposals before they can be submitted. North Yorkshire’s seven district councils, including Harrogate Borough Council, are each expected to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the plan put forward by NYCC.

Once all councils have agreed, the requests are tabled to government and ministers will produce a formal devolution deal for authorities to vote on.

North Yorkshire County Council leader, Carl Les.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of the county council, said he was pleased to get the submission on the table.

He said:

“This seems to have been on the go for a long time and has had many false starts.

“We have finally got to where we are today with a set of requests that we want to agree so that we can put them on the table with government.”

Ministers and council leaders have set a target of May 2022 for any devolution plan to coincide with the mayoral elections.

Local government shake-up

Following a meeting between Simon Clark, local government minister, and the county’s council leaders, any devolution bid is expected to come with a reorganisation of councils in the county.

This could mean that the county’s seven district councils are scrapped and replaced with a unitary authority for the county.

Councils have until September to submit proposals to the government for a reorganisation of local authorities.

A further report on a proposal for a new authority as part of the reorganisation is expected to come to the county council executive at a later date.

Harrogate Convention Centre investment ‘obscene’, says Mayor of Ripon

The Mayor of Ripon has denounced a £46.8 million investment in Harrogate Convention Centre as a waste of money which will not benefit people elsewhere in the district.

It comes as senior councillors on the borough council will decide on Wednesday whether to spend £1 million to develop plans for the upgrade and spend £155,000 over three years to appoint a project manager.

A confidential cabinet report leaked to the Stray Ferret warns the HCC “will not survive” unless councillors approve a £46.8 million project, which includes full renovation of the venue.

But, the decision has raised concern among those in the wider district who feel that the investment is centred on what economic benefit can be increased in Harrogate and not in the surrounding areas.

Cllr Eamon Parkin, Mayor of Ripon.

Cllr Eamon Parkin, independent mayor of Ripon, said the city and its residents will not benefit from the investment. He added that few visit the convention centre.

Cllr Parkin said:

“It’s an obscene amount of money.

“We never benefit from it here in Ripon. In my opinion, there is never anything worth going to.

“My background is in entertainment and a building like that should be attracting big names, but there is never anything on. I think it is shambolic.”

He added that the HCC suffered from better events and entertainment being held at Leeds Arena.

Meanwhile, opposition Liberal Democrat councillors said years of underinvestment has damaged the HCC and council officials need to “bite the bullet” and invest in the venue.

Pat Marsh, leader of the Lib Dems and board member at the HCC, said the future of the centre was a stark decision between spending money on the centre and walking away from it.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Cllr Marsh said people will still want to meet at events in person and attend conferences which the HCC needed to be prepared for.

But, she added that any move to spend money on the centre needed to be value for money for taxpayers.

Cllr Marsh said:

“It is a stark decision between investing in the centre or selling it and walking away.

“It is valuable to the local economy. We have to bite the bullet and unless someone can come forward with another way, I cannot see any other way than investing for our people.

“What we need to do is make sure that there is value for money. We have got to make sure that this investment is key for the taxpayer.”

Harrogate Borough Council was approached for comment to respond to the concerns of those in the wider district, but did not respond.

However, the authority has always maintained that the venue has a benefit to the district and that the renovation will help to improve the economy.

Cllr Graham Swift, cabinet member for economic development, said last week:

“Harrogate Convention Centre makes such an important contribution to the district’s economy.

“It is central to the viability of many hundreds of businesses and our recent experience of lockdown shows just what a positive difference it makes locally.

“Redeveloping the centre will make it a much more flexible space that can attract a broader customer base and will have the potential to substantially increase its economic contribution.

“It will also enable us to create a unique facility we can all be proud of which also attracts new events to Harrogate, the district and North Yorkshire.

“I hope my fellow councillors will support this initial investment that will enable us to get the ball rolling on design and construction plans.”

£60m or £35m: What is the value of Harrogate Convention Centre to the district?

For the past decade, Harrogate Borough Council has publicly sold the HCC as having an economic benefit to the town of around £60m.

Yet at a full council meeting in December last year that figure dropped to a value of £35 million.

This week councillors will take a step towards taking one of the biggest financial decisions in recent decades – £47 million worth of investment of taxpayers’ money in the HCC in an effort to make it profitable.

The question is – what is the real value of the HCC to the local economy?

The £60 million figure has been included in almost all local authority reports, including its annual report in 2019.

That figure has been based upon annual economic impact summaries carried out by the council and includes a range of assumptions, such as average visitor numbers, how much each individual spends and length of stay.

An example of an economic impact summary used to assess the value of the HCC in 2016/17.

In its annual report in 2019, the council said:

“We are responding to the challenges of the changing nature of the conference industry by redeveloping the Harrogate Convention Centre site.

“The facility contributes around £55 million a year to the local economy and has an important role to play in the district.”

That was until December that year when council leader, Richard Cooper, was quoted at a full council meeting as saying the HCC is worth £35 million to the town.

Minutes from the meeting said:

“The leader reported on the performance for the last year and advised that the Visit Britain methodology was now being used to calculate the economic impact for the district.

“The number of conferences and exhibitions had remained the same and using the new methodology it was estimated that the HCC would drive approximately £35 million of economic impact for 2019/20.”

It brings into question how the council had previously reached a figure almost double that and whether it felt some pressure to justify continued investment.

And is that value just to Harrogate alone? There are those outside the town who argue that a huge amount of public money is spent on a centre that does not bring significant economic benefit to the wider district.

Convention Centre losses

In the last 12 financial years, the centre has reported a loss on eight occasions and seen its income drop from £7 million in 2008 to £4 million 10 years later.

As a subsidised economic driver for the town, the HCC relies on taxpayer money to be able to operate the way it does.

According to the council’s own statement of accounts, in the years where the HCC made a loss the total cost to the public purse was £5,793,606.

Harrogate Convention Centre.

Meanwhile, council papers leaked to The Stray Ferret show that it reported a £710,000 cost for 2019/20.

Explaining the loss, the report said:

“This is largely attributed to the increasingly ageing facilities which are of a poorer quality and scale than HCC’s growing number of competitors (many of which have also been redeveloping in recent years).

“This in turn has led to a loss of market share and a fall in the number and scale of events.”

It paints a picture of an operating model that requires radical change in order to better serve its customers.

Years of indecision

Four years and four consultants on, the HCC and its future remains uncertain.

2016 – The Right Solution published a report into the future of the centre and listed recommendations including an arms length company. Paid £32,572.

2018 – IPW Consultancy is brought in to review market analysis of conferences and exhibition centres and

2018 – Property advisor Cushman and Wakefield was appointed by the council to come up with a business case for the site. Paid £137,550.

2018 – Group Ginger was also appointed to develop a masterplan of the redevelopment.

But a further £40,000 was granted in November 2019 to commission a consultant to look into a different option for the site following a change in leadership at the HCC.

The borough council appointed Cushman and Wakefield as the consultants for the plan.

The report said:

“The HCC redevelopment project poses significant commercial, reputational and financial risks to the council and in order that we are able to make sound recommendations for investment decisions, we are now seeking to commission further specialist advice to test and compare how the alternative, client-led option performs against the status quo position and the original project objectives.”

Now again in 2020 the borough council looks set to spend £1 million, most of which will be borrowed, to consult further on one set of design proposals.

Is there a different vision?

The decision going to the council offers only one vision – to keep the site as a convention centre. The only question put to councillors is how much money they want to spend on refurbishing it.

Could there be a different vision for the site that could provide a sustainable economic driver for Harrogate? That is not on the table.

The borough council it seems has put all of our eggs in one basket in the hope the centre will finally start to make a profit and bring more income to Harrogate.

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked report reveals dire financial state of Harrogate Convention Centre

No coronavirus deaths at Harrogate Hospital for nine days

Latest NHS England figures show that no coronavirus deaths have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital for nine days.

It means the death toll at the hospital remains at 82. The last reported death was on July 15.

Meanwhile, face coverings became mandatory in shops and supermarkets today.

The new guidelines state that coverings will be mandatory when buying takeaway food and drink but can be removed when seated at a table.

Failure to wear a face covering could result in a £100 fine, however North Yorkshire Police said this would be a “last resort”.

Harrogate District Hospital reports no further coronavirus deaths

Latest figures from NHS England show no further coronavirus deaths have been reported at Harrogate District Hospital in the last 24 hours.

It means the total number of deaths from coronavirus at the hospital remains at 82.

Meanwhile, nationally, a further 10 deaths from patients who tested positive for the virus have died in hospital.

Of that number, one patient died in the North East and Yorkshire.

NHS England said the patients were aged between 50 and 97 years old and all had known underlying health conditions.

It takes the national death toll from coronavirus up to 29,212.

Harrogate Leeds United fans prepare for Premier League

After 16 years outside English football’s top flight, Leeds United fans in Harrogate are preparing for a return to the Premier League and a first piece of silverware in 28 years.

The Whites confirmed promotion last Friday after an Emile Smith Rowe goal in the 86th minute for Huddersfield Town defeated West Bromwich Albion 2-1.

Less than 24 hours later, United clinched the title without kicking a ball as third-placed Brentford lost to Stoke City.

For Lai Lam, branch member and publicity officer at Harrogate and District Leeds United Supporters group, the moment on Friday night was special.

“I got loads of messages about going down to Elland Road but I’m trying to be responsible so stayed away.

“I saw the footage of the ones who did though, then saw the team on the steps of the East Stand on Facebook. It was brilliant.”

The supporters group, which was formerly Knaresborough branch until 1996, has around 150 paid members and usually follows the club home and away.

Miss Lam, a season ticket holder for 30 years, joined the branch for the 1995/96 season and saw United relegated to the Championship at Bolton in 2004. She said:

“Most of us realised we were going down but we didn’t realise it was only the start of the rot that took us even lower.”

After a play-off final defeat to Watford in 2006, United dropped into the third tier for the first time in the club’s history the following season.

https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1284470294263083008

Promotion back to the second division in 2010 was a ray of hope in dark times. But the appointment of Marcelo Bielsa as head coach in 2018 proved to be the catalyst for a return to the Premier League.

Now, Miss Lam and fellow branch members are itching to get back into the ground to see the team for the first time since March. She said:

“We play some of the best football I’ve have seen in years. I’m looking forward to seeing how Bielsa’s ways work in the Premier League.

“The man is a genius. He’s completely transformed football in two short years.

“When we can get into the grounds it’ll be great to see the atmosphere that our fans generate.”

Before that though, there is a small matter of lifting the Championship trophy, which United will be presented with following the Charlton game tonight.

Amid the pandemic, football fans have been forced to watch their teams away from the stadiums. Instead, Miss Lam will celebrate the Whites’ first piece of silverware since 1992 at home with friends.

“It has ruined what should have been a fantastic end to the season. This is the first year the players and the club have been so approachable and we could really have enjoyed it with them.

“But we’re promoted with the best points tally for ages.”

No further coronavirus care home or hospital deaths in Harrogate

Harrogate District Hospital has reported no further coronavirus deaths and no new care home deaths have been recorded, according to latest figures.

Data from NHS England showed no patients who tested positive for coronavirus were reported to have died at the hospital in the last 24 hours.

The death toll from Covid at the hospital remains at 82.

Nationally, a further 15 people have died in England’s hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus. It takes the death toll in the nation’s hospitals to 29,202.

NHS England said the patients were aged between 46 and 90. Five patients, aged between 46 and 84, had no known underlying health conditions.

Office for National Statistics data, published today, showed no further deaths in care homes due to coronavirus in the Harrogate district from 3 July to 10 July

It means the number of people who have died in care homes remains at 104.

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Devolution bid

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Local government shake-up

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Convention Centre losses

Years of indecision

Is there a different vision?

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