County council set to reject climate change action appeal

North Yorkshire County Council looks poised to dismiss moves by Green and Liberal Democrat councillors to accelerate the response to thr climate change and biodiversity crises, claiming they could be counter-productive.

The council’s Conservative-run executive will consider two environmental notices of motion that councillors were prevented from debating at a full council meeting in July, with the authority’s chairman instead opting to refer the proposals to its cabinet members.

Both motions propose the establishment of a new committee specifically to scrutinise the council’s progress and leadership in tackling climate change and establishing biodiversity plans to ensure oversight of the collective ambition of the council.

Since losing its overwhelming majority at the May elections, the Tory-led council has been facing mounting pressure, particularly from the Liberal Democrat and Green groups, to redouble its climate change and biodiversity efforts and allow opposition councillors to play a greater role in shaping such policies.

An officers’ report to the executive states the creation of a new scrutiny committee would take the number of such forums at the council to seven.

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It adds the council’s scrutiny function is under review as part of the establishment of a new unitary authority and recommendations would be brought before all elected members later this year.

One of the motions also calls for the creation of a new executive member to reflect the scale of the job, but the officers’ report highlights the executive already has the maximum number of members allowed under the county council’s constitution.

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths, who represents Stokesley, said the officers’ report failed to fully address the high priority and action needed to effectively deal with climate change and the ecological emergency in North Yorkshire.

He said: 

“I think the points we put forward to deal with that are still valid and worthwhile objectives that the council should be taking on board and should be fully debated by the full council.”

The council’s Conservative leader, Cllr Carl Les said the executive’s debate and recommendations to the next full meeting of the authority in November would focus on how the authority could best manage the impacts of climate change.

He said: 

“It is a hugely important issue to us. It seems to me that the Greens and Lib Dems are suggesting we have to have a special executive member and a special scrutiny committee, but we believe the climate change and biodiversity issues cut across everything that we do.

“The approach that we are taking by embedding it into everything we are doing, so every report we produce now examines the climate change impact, is better.”

When asked if the decision to reject specialist climate change roles and groups at the council was politically-fuelled, Cllr Les said: 

“Not at all. All our scrutiny committees have the ability to look at climate change implications.

“If anything they have more influence and control over what we are doing than what is being proposed.”

North Yorkshire County Council considers intervening in Dales housing market

North Yorkshire County Council is considering directly intervening in the housing market to reverse population decline in the Yorkshire Dales.

The council’s conservative leader,Carl Les, said the authority was examining a range of possibilities. They include becoming the first local authority to buy land in the Dales or subsidise affordable housing developments.

The move follows a Countryside Commission inquiry identifying numerous issues with getting affordable housing projects started in the county’s national parks.

Cllr Les was speaking at the council’s Richmondshire constituency committee, after a senior national park authority officer revealed some proposals to tackle what is believed to have been a significant population decline in the park over the past decade.

Peter Stockton, who is leading the park authority’s review of the Local Plan, told the committee by 2017, 30 per cent of national park residents were aged over 65, about double the national average.

He said specialist housing for elderly people was needed as well as affordable housing and houses of multiple occupancy (HMO) for young people.

Mr Stockton said:

“If I was a planner in Leeds or York an HMO is a bit of a dirty word, but in rural North Yorkshire there is a need for shared homes for younger people. It makes taking up contract work viable. I would like to see entrepreneurs buying existing properties and using them responsibly for shared accommodation.

“There’s money to be made by taking existing properties in the Dales and subdividing and running them as shared housing for younger people. There’s plenty of isolated farm buildings in the national park near towns.”

Mr Stockton said while the national average of properties not permanently occupied was about four per cent, some 21 per cent of those in the national park were second homes or holiday lets.

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The meeting heard the Yorkshire Dales was planning to follow in the footsteps of several other national parks, including the North York Moors, in preventing any new properties from becoming second homes or holiday lets.

Mr Stockton added:

“It would be fantastic if the new unitary authorities could purchase some of the sites that are allocated in our Local Plan. We have no public land in the national park and that’s a problem.

“If the new unitary authority was to purchase a couple of sites, in the more difficult to develop deeper rural areas, in Hawes or Grassington perhaps, then your housing teams would then be in charge and you could really go to town. You could have self-build, houses for rent, shared ownership, specialist elderly care and HMOs.”

In response, cllr Les said the authority was continuing to consider levying extra council tax on second homes in the county, generating about £10m, some of which could be used to foster affordable housing in areas such as national parks.

He said the council could also consider using its private housebuilding arm to accelerate the construction of affordable homes. He said:

“It’s a very high cost to build in the Dales, the specifications tend to be higher as it’s in a national park, but there’s also a shortage of builders there, so the first and last hour of every day is travelling to the site.

“We can intervene to make the site less expensive.”

He added there was £13m in the proposed devolution deal to develop brownfield sites, some of which would be used for housing in rural areas, with another round of devolution deals to be done when the mayoral combined authority was agreed.

North Yorkshire County Council hits back at ‘dilution of democracy’ criticisms

A council overseeing sweeping changes to local government in North Yorkshire has hit back at criticism of the proposed overhaul, saying it would represent the biggest strengthening of democracy in generations.

Leading members of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive dismissed claims that hundreds of elected community representatives on district and borough councils are set to be replaced by just two councillors on a mayoral combined authority, saying the two levels of local government were not comparable.

Concerns were initially raised by the county’s borough and district councils over residents’ representation ahead of proposals for a single unitary authority being agreed.

Recent weeks have seen opposition members repeatedly highlight how proposals to create a new tier of local government in a mayoral combined authority for North Yorkshire and York include plans to have two decision-making members from the county and two from the city, alongside an elected mayor.

The proposals being consulted on this autumn would make the county, with a population of more than 600,000, and York, which has more than 200,000 residents, equally represented on the mayoral combined authority.

Speaking ahead of a public consultation over the proposed devolution deal as part of the changes, a number of councillors have stated the overhaul would erode residents’ ability to shape key decisions.

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Earlier this month Independent councillor John McCartney, who represents Osgoldcross, said many residents engaged in local democracy felt “irked and discombobulated” as their local councils were being swapped for a remote one in what he described as “a power grab” by County Hall in Northallerton.

However, it is understood senior North Yorkshire figures are comfortable with the disparity in representation as they are keen to foster a partnership with their York counterparts, and believe a fair balance will be struck by the elected mayor.

The authority’s deputy leader, councillor Gareth Dadd, told a meeting of the executive yesterday claims that the devolution deal would lead to “a dilution of democracy and that the world as we know would cease to exist” were far from reality.

He said:

“In my view it is an absolute strengthening of democracy.

“I suspect a mayoral election will take place in 2024 and the 800,000 good folk of York and North Yorkshire will have the ability to make a choice about who is actually heading up the spending of that extra money that was decided its course in Westminster, County Hall and the Guildhall.

“It will be the biggest strengthening in democracy, in my view, that we have seen in generations for this part of the world.”

Executive member for climate change and customer engagement Councillor Greg White added while the extra funding and greater discretion over the spending of public money from devolution in North Yorkshire and York was to be welcomed, the real prize would be in having an elected mayor who could deal directly with government.

Report says North Yorkshire mayor will ‘promote local democracy’

A review of proposed sweeping changes to local government in North Yorkshire and York has concluded having an elected mayor and a combined authority “will promote local democracy”.

The claim, in a report to a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive on Tuesday, comes ahead of an eight-week public consultation over the devolution deal that local authorities have struck with the government alongside local government reorganisation.

Concerns have been raised repeatedly by councillors in North Yorkshire that the substitution of the county’s district, borough and county councils for a single unitary council and a mayor-led combined authority will erode residents’ ability to shape key decisions.

Earlier this month, Independent Cllr John McCartney said many residents engaged in local democracy felt “irked and discombobulated” as their local councils were being swapped for a remote one in what he described as “a power grab” by county hall in Northallerton.

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons described the potential substitution of hundreds of district and borough representatives for two North Yorkshire and two City of York councillors on a combined authority as a blow for democratic representation and decision-making.

Green Party group coordinator Cllr Andy Brown said devolution “did not appear to be a great exercise in democracy” in the county.

However, the officer’s report to the executive highlights how local government reorganisation was a prerequisite of devolution, which under the proposed deal would bring £540m of new government investment to spend on local priorities.

The report states: 

“The deal means that decisions previously taken centrally would now be taken closer to the people affected and the region is not disadvantaged as other regions acquire their own devolution deals.

“The proposed mayoral combined authority will promote local democracy through direct democratic accountability. The introduction of a directly-elected mayor will enable a greater focus for change that will seek to enhance economic growth.”

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The county council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said the consultation would see the authority argue very strongly that the devolution deal would see more decision-making by locally elected politicians, rather than civil servants and ministers in Whitehall.

He said while much of the structure of local government in North Yorkshire would not change, the most notable differences would be having an elected mayor to act as a strong voice for the county and city and a combined authority to provide strategic decision-making.

Addressing concerns over local democracy, Cllr Les said while all residents would continue to a locally elected councillor to represent them, the council was in talks with a number of parish and town councils about what services they would like to have jurisdiction over.

He said there was “nothing on or off the table” in terms of the powers towns and parishes could take on.

County council criticises Home Office again over ‘dumping asylum seekers’

North Yorkshire County Council has criticised the Home Office for its treatment of those seeking asylum after it scrapped plans to house 1,500 asylum seekers at a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse

Conservative Cllr David Chance, executive member for stronger communities, said despite having repeatedly been made aware of the complete unsuitability of a hotel near Selby as bridging accommodation for Afghan refugees, the Home Office had announced it now intended to use it for asylum seekers instead.

The move has emerged just weeks after the Home Office revealed it no longer intended to send asylum seekers to Linton on Ouse, which is four miles from Great Ouseburn and Little Ousburn in the Harrogate district, not far from Knaresborough and Boroughbridge.

It also comes just three weeks after the final Afghan refugees left the hotel near Selby. After leaving the accommodation, Marwa Koofi, 21, who fled Kabul when the city fell to the Taliban last year, said she had since “wasted a year because my hotel was in a location where I couldn’t do anything”.

A meeting of the executive of the county council, which in partnership with a range of agencies continues to provide support to the Afghan refugee families in another bridging hotel in Scarborough, heard families at the Selby hotel had been moved to other hotels.

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Cllr Chance said he was unaware of the proposed number of asylum seekers at the hotel.

He said the hotel had written to the government asking to be considered as bridging accommodation for refugees, “much against our better judgement”.

Coun Chance said: 

“We said that to the Home Office at the time. We do not believe this hotel is suitable for this purpose and I can’t support it.

“You are putting individuals in the middle of a motorway complex with nothing to do and it’s totally wrong, but out of our hands.”

After the meeting, Selby councillor and leader of the council’s Labour group Councillor Steve Shaw Wright said as the hotel was on the side of the former A1 those staying there would face having to walk miles to get anywhere.

He said while Selby Town Council had funded buses to get the Afghan refugees into the town so they could mix with people of their own faith, local councillors had been “really pleased” when they heard the government would close it for refugees.

Cllr Shaw Wright said: 

“We hoped they would go to somewhere more suitable, but it was announced it would be a hotel for individual asylum seekers. That’s even worse because how are they going to cope in the middle of nowhere and, if they’re waiting asylum seekers, some of them might go walkabout.

“It’s an example of the government not having a clue what they are doing with these people and it’s not fair on the asylum seekers and refugees and it’s also not fair on the local community.

“It seems like a knee-jerk decision to dump refugees in the middle of nowhere.”

A Home Office spokesman said the response to the crisis in Afghanistan last August was one of the most challenging, intense and complex overseas operations undertaken by the UK, and the largest air evacuation operation in recent memory.

He added: 

“While hotels do not provide a long-term solution, they do offer safe, secure and clean accommodation. We will continue to bring down the number of people in bridging hotels, moving people into more sustainable accommodation as quickly as possible.”

Concerns over exploitation in North Yorkshire as number of young carers rises

Children’s services bosses say a “significantly higher” number of children are coming forward as young carers, partly due to physical and mental health conditions not being treated during the pandemic.

A North Yorkshire County Council meeting heard precise numbers of people aged 18 and under who care for a friend or family member who cannot cope without their support had not been established since the pandemic as the 2021 census data was still being analysed.

However, the meeting was told it was believed the number of young carers had risen sharply since the 2011 census, when 1,107 young carers aged 15 and under were identified in the county, 70 of whom were providing 50 or more hours of care a week.

Some councillors expressed surprise after hearing the 2011 census also identified 2,436 unpaid carers aged 16 to 24, 203 of whom provided 50 or more hours of care a week.

Councillors heard the council’s annual Growing Up In North Yorkshire survey of children would also help establish accurate figures of the rise.

The young people’s scrutiny committee meeting heard to meet its legal duty to provide all carers with an assessment of their needs and put in services to protect their health and wellbeing, the authority was working with numerous bodies, and in particular schools, to identify as many young carers as possible.

Officers said the authority had strengthened a drive to identify young carers, some of whom are reluctant to ask for help for fear of being perceived as weak or facing bullying.

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They said the council’s successful awareness-raising campaign may have contributed to the increase in young carers by removing stigma and instilling a greater willingness among young people to come forward and seek help.

An officer added:

“Coming out of the pandemic we know that some people’s health issues haven’t been addressed or have deteriorated, and particularly we are yet to see the impact on mental health, both for adults and young people.

“We are certainly seeing some impact already on children’s services. I think we will see an increase in the number of carers as a result of the pandemic.”

In response, councillors said children were providing a free service that the authority should be providing instead.

Conservative councillor for Bilton & Nidd Gorge, Paul Haslam, said the young carers were “providing care on the cheap”.

Conservative councillor for Thorp Willoughby, Cliff Lunn added:

“It could be seen that we are merely training them to do the job properly rather than addressing the problem. In the bigger picture we could be seen to be exploiting childhood.”

A senior officer replied that any service could not completely fill the gaps that families, and in some cases young children, provide.

She added:

“I think that’s a really valid point. One of the aspects of the services provided is to make sure the adults who need the care are aware of all the sources of support that they can access, including financial benefits that may help them to pay for care to relieve the carer responsibilities for the child.”

Free school meals children will not face stigma, says North Yorkshire County Council

Parents struggling to make ends meet during the cost of living crisis have been told their children can have free school meals without facing any social stigma.

North Yorkshire County Council’s director of children’s services, Stuart Carlton, said the authority was talking to both parents and schools as part of a drive to improve the 78% take-up from those entitled to free school meals.

It comes amid concerns that increasingly large numbers of those eligible will not take up the support.

A meeting of the authority’s executive heard concerns were mounting over the rate of take-up. It comes as the number of those eligible for the meals is set to significantly increase in the coming months as inflation and soaring energy bills leave family budgets increasingly stretched.

Ripon Ure Bank and Spa division Liberal Democrat councillor Barbara Brodigan questioned what the authority was doing to find out the reasons behind more than one in five of eligible children’s parents not accepting free school meals.

She also pressed the council’s leadership about what was being done to encourage take-up and what support was being offered to those just outside the criteria to qualify.

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The council’s executive member for education, Conservative councillor Annabel Wilkinson, said the 15.4% of pupils already eligible for free school meals was forecast to rise due to the cost of living crisis.

She said: 

“We have recognised that there have been some barriers and sticking points in the application process and we have addressed those to make it easier for people to apply and been promoting that extensively.

“As schools go back I’m sure that they will encourage that because obviously they get the pupil premium from people that receive free school meals.”

She said the council was also offering other support, such as its Local Assistance Fund, to those facing financial difficulty and had also simplified the process for applying for free school meals.

Mr Carlton added while the take-up of free school meals had remained at about 20% below the number available for some years, there was a concern “with the numbers going up so significantly with the parents who have not had to access this before”.

He said: 

“There are issues of this feeling like a stigma and something that they are embarrassed about. We have talked to our schools and have worked with our catering service to make free school meals non-stigmatising.

“I would say to any parent if you are entitled to a free school meal please please take it up. If you are worried about any stigma or embarrassment please just talk to your school. It has changed from what it was like 20 years ago. Children can access a free school meal and no one would know any different.”

North Yorkshire Tories call on next government to ‘get real’ over energy bills

Tory councillors on North Yorkshire County Council have told the Conservative Party leadership candidates that direct targeted help will be needed to support residents through the energy cost crisis.

Senior members of the party in the traditional Conservative stronghold of North Yorkshire say they are becoming increasingly concerned about how the most vulnerable members of the community will cope financially ahead of Ofgem confirming October’s energy price cap tomorrow.

They have pointed towards demand for North Yorkshire County Council’s Local Assistance Fund, which provides support for vulnerable people needing help with essential living costs, doubling in recent months.

Energy bills are forecast to top £5,300 annually in April next year, representing a huge increase from previous predictions.

Prime ministerial candidate frontrunner Liz Truss has promised an emergency budget if she is selected, saying she would reverse National Insurance rises and stop business tax hikes.

She has also suggested extra cash support may be available for families struggling with energy bills.

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak said he would prioritise tackling inflation and introduce more targeted support for households, pledging to reduce VAT on domestic energy bills.

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A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive this week heard its finance boss and deputy leader, Councillor Gareth Dadd, say while he remained confident the authority could rise to the challenge of tackling inflationary pressures, some residents would struggle.

Gareth Dadd

Cllr Dadd (pictured above) said:

“If I can just give one message to either one of the, well one in particular, of the prime ministerial candidates, call it hand-outs, call it what you want, there is no two ways, given the rising price cap that we are expecting in a few days’ time, direct support will be needed to those most in need.

“A pound a week saving via a tax cut will not make the cut as far as I am concerned across the most vulnerable residents in North Yorkshire.

“It’s about time we got real and recognised this and it’s direct support that’s needed as there’s an impact on our services and our costs. I think we’ve already seen evidence of that through the Local Assistance Fund.

“The plea is direct target help with those energy bills will go a long way to seeing off some of the demand rises that we’ve seen lately.”

Opposition councillors raise concern over £540m North Yorkshire devolution deal

Opposition leaders in North Yorkshire have given a mixed reaction to the announcement that a devolution deal has been agreed and have questioned whether the county’s residents will be fairly treated.

With the Tories achieving a narrow majority in May’s elections, opposition councillors say they will hold North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative administration to account over how the gain-share or extra funding from government is divided between the county and York.

The comments come as a historic 30 year devolution deal was announced by ministers today, which will mean North Yorkshire and York will see an elected Mayor in 2024 with £540 million pounds of government cash.

Leader of the authority’s largest opposition group, the Liberal Democrats and Liberals, Cllr Bryn Griffiths said he had reservations over devolution and the combined authority and mayor that went with it.

He said: 

“The only way to get significant money from the government at the moment it seems is via combined authorities. I don’t think it’s the right way to do things, but it’s left areas without one in between the Devil and the deep blue sea.

“I don’t think mayors are very accountable, but if it gives access to funding it’s a balancing matter between accountability and funding.”

‘Not a great exercise in democracy’

A number of other authority opposition members have similar concerns that devolution has proved to be an intensely political process.

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons said: 

“It’s worrying in that it’s a political process as that means a change in government in a couple of years’ time could lead to all sorts of problems with it.

“A new government might not want things to work that way, and then the governance rules that appear to be set in place for it would be an absolute farce.”

Cllr Parsons said suggestions that two North Yorkshire and two City of York councillors would form the decision-making body on the combined authority with a mayor would be a blow for democratic representation and democratic decision-making.

He said the councillors on the combined authority would be from a council’s ruling group there would be no “serious political representation on that body”.

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Green Party group coordinator Cllr Andy Brown agreed that devolution “did not appear to be a great exercise in democracy” in the county.

He said:

“Genuine devolution would be a fantastic thing for North Yorkshire. Unfortunately it’s not what is taking place.

“At the moment we have a massive exercise in the centralisation of the district councils into one gigantic council and that council has yet to demonstrate it understands fully democratic processes.

“The critical factor will be not how much power central government delegates to Northallerton, but how much power Northallerton genuinely delegates to its communities.”

Meanwhile, Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said while he believed devolution would benefit North Yorkshire, he was uncertain about the timing.

He said the combination of launching a new unitary authority, starting negotiations with City of York Council and holding mayoral elections was “an awful lot all at once”.

Cllr Shaw Wright said: 

“I know there’s financial benefits, but it’ll not repay what we’ve had cut over the last 10 years.”

He added suggestions that the combined authority would feature just two York and two North Yorkshire councillors was “a recipe for disaster at the worst and deadlock at the best” and that a larger more politically representative decision-making body would be more effective.

County Council’s ambition for devolution deal on Yorkshire Day

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has spoken of his hope that the government will agree a devolution deal this Monday on Yorkshire Day.

Councillor Carl Les said while it had been hoped devolution for the county and York would be agreed before the parliamentary summer recess started last week, work was continuing to finalise a deal after almost 20 months of negotiations.

He told a meeting of the authority that the Department for Communities and Local Government had launched a process known as a “write-round”, to get the consent from other ministries, such as the Treasury, and Department of Transport, without having to hold a cabinet meeting.

It is understood if all the government departments are happy, a devolution deal could be announced within days.

Cllr Les said he was hopeful a deal could be reached by August 1.

Cllr Les has repeatedly emphasised the county has no right to devolution and that North Yorkshire and York have had to develop a case for the government giving up some of its powers.

If there is an objection from any ministry it could delay the deal until September.

A meeting of the authority heard concerns over the potential consequences of the government missing the target date.

The concerns follow Michael Gove’s departure as communities secretary prompting fears within local government that devolution might be postponed.

However, local government analysts have reported Mr Gove’s replacement, Greg Clark, is determined to keep to his predecessor’s target of getting nine devolution deals signed before the autumn.

There have also been concerns the deal could be delayed by an unwillingness to ratify major decisions during uncertainty over who will become the next prime minister.

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It is believed the deal for York and North Yorkshire could potentially unlock around £2.4bn of investment over 30 years, with a focus on improving economic prosperity, creating more affordable housing and lead to the area becoming England’s first carbon negative economy.

Key to the asks which were put forward in December 2020 are wishes to take charge of delivering improved digital connectivity and the amount of “gain share” or extra funding from government.Gain share is being viewed as a key part of the devolution deal as it will remain the same flat rate for the next 30 years, whereas the devolvement of powers could continue to be negotiated at a later date.