Concerns are mounting for traditional bus services in rural areas as passenger numbers remain well below pre-pandemic rates.

While numerous services were kept afloat across North Yorkshire with £1.5m of subsidies from the county council before covid, the county’s transport boss has stated many are now facing “great pressure” due to a lack of passengers.

Bus demand in Great Britain maintained its downward trend in the quarter before the pandemic, falling by 2.7 per cent, according to statistics published by the Department for Transport, but since covid the number of passengers using North Yorkshire services has dropped by about 30 per cent.

North Yorkshire County Council’s older people’s champion Councillor Caroline Dickinson questioned whether the pandemic had led to a long-term shift in behaviour away from public to private transport.

The member for Northallerton said bus user groups were wanting more bus services in rural areas.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for access, Councillor Don Mackenzie responded by issuing reassurances that the authority had launched initiatives to counter the drop in passengers.

He said alongside the Yorbus initiative, which the authority hopes to roll out elsewhere to improve access to public transport, the council was looking to develop services that were better value for money and more effective as part of its bus services improvement plan, valued at £116m over eight years.

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Cllr Mackenzie warned the council would always focus its available funds on where it would achieve the strongest outcomes.

He said:

“Clearly bus services, like rail services, have suffered as a result of covid. I understand passenger numbers are still well below where they were before covid came along.

“We’re looking at something like 70 per cent patronage on bus services and because of that the commercial viability of especially rural services remains under great pressure.”

Ripon service

The executive also heard the first three months of Yorbus, its demand responsive travel pilot in the rural area surrounding Bedale, Ripon and Masham, had “exceeded expectations” and achieved the majority of its targets expected at six to 12 months in the first three months of service.

An officers’ report to the meeting stated:

“Feedback from customers has, on the whole, been extremely positive, and the high levels of customer satisfaction are reflected in the number of repeat passengers using the service.

“During the quarter, 98.5 per cent of all completed bookings were made via the customer app and 1,541 accounts were created in the first three months, against a target of 171.”

Cllr Mackenzie added:

“At the moment we invest £1.5m a year subsidising rural bus services and in addition to that £7m a year on bus passes under the national concessionary travel scheme.

“We are doing plenty for it, but inevitably value for money will come into this. Our ultimate aim is to make rural bus services much more viable by improving patronage.”

North Yorkshire County Council has been accused of making a “trophy investment” by buying Harrogate’s Royal Baths for £9m, as part of a bid to raise money for frontline services.

The council set up the Brierley Group of firms, ranging from house builders to lawyers, in 2017 to bring together council-owned companies and save money. However, last year it reported a loss of £639,000.

With further losses forecast for the current financial year, some members of the authority have questioned whether the council has the necessary business acumen to run the array of firms.

A meeting of the Tory-led authority’s corporate and partnerships scrutiny committee heard the pandemic was continuing to significantly affect some arms of the Brierley Group.

Officers have estimated revenue returns for its property investment this financial year of £282,000, which equates to a return of 2.38 per cent.

The meeting heard the Royal Baths property comprises four commercial units, including a nightclub, bar and restaurant that had all closed for extended periods over the last two years, but also that “the longer term viability of some tenants is a concern”.

Officers said covid and the resulting lockdowns could not have been foreseen and officers were working closely with tenants to achieve a return to pre-covid performance as soon as possible.

‘Absolutely speechless’

After learning of the rate of return, Conservative member for Escrick, Councillor Richard Musgrave, told the meeting he was “staggered” to learn the council had invested £9m in the Royal Baths:

“I thought you might say a million for example for four units. I am absolutely speechless.”

“The performance looks very very poor. Several of the tenants are struggling by the looks of things. It looks like a poor investment, it looks like a trophy investment.”

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The meeting heard the council had carried out thorough checks before accepting tenants.

Councillor Gareth Dadd, the authority’s deputy leader who also chairs the council’s Commercial Investment Board, said the Harrogate Baths investment had been approved by the council’s executive.

He said businesses sometimes had to take non-payment of rent “on the chin”:

“It’s about the percentage rate of return of investment that we would expect and at the time it looked good. Even with covid, which has clobbered the market, we are still the right side of the line in terms of leaving the money in the bank. Overall, yes it hasn’t performed as well as anybody would have hoped, but we are still making a margin on it.”

The meeting heard a proposal, first revealed three years ago, for the council to set up a solar farm to generate more funding had been shelved after the set-up costs and time for a return on the investment were found to be prohibitive.

North Yorkshire County Council has set up a £15,000 fund to help councillors who have faced violent threats and abuse.

A meeting of the authority’s executive approved setting aside the money to which any of its 72 elected members will be able to apply, just weeks after Conservative MP Sir David Amess was killed at a constituency surgery in Essex.

The move also follows some North Yorkshire councillors reporting death threats, abusive letters and emails, being held hostage and having their property vandalised.

Under the initiative, councillors will be able to anonymously apply to the security fund, for which there would be no investigation as to whether there is any evidential support for the councillor’s concerns.

The council’s deputy leader, Cllr Gareth Dadd, whose partner is Darlington MP Peter Gibson, told the meeting no elected representative at whatever level should feel threatened or barred from seeking public office.

He said: 

“I also believe it’s the duty of any democratic organisation to protect and to promote democracy, and to that end I welcome a fund. And that fund will apply to all members of all parties or none. Party politics is not an issue whatsoever.”

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Cllr Dadd said the fund would mean elected members who felt frightened walking down the street could be provided with low-cost measures such as panic alarms, adding: 

“More serious threats could be and have been made, so it might be home security.”

He said while the amount of funding given to councillors needed to be proportional and pragmatic, the authority should not set an upper limit on the amount of money that could be spent protecting elected members.

Cllr Dadd said: 

“Money should not be an obstacle to achieving the outcome we are seeking. 

“We have pencilled in £15,000, but I very much hope the new unitary authority will not set a limit on this because there can be no financial limit on the defence of democracy.”

Home visit concerns

Councillors also agreed to enable elected members with concerns to contact designated officers to provide information about potentially violent persons before undertaking a home visit.

However, concerns were raised over how that would work as councillors were often unaware of concerns about individuals before they arrived at a property.

Whitby cum Mulgrave division councillor and executive member David Chance said: 

“I had a situation that revolved around my support for the refugee programme and I had a number of emails and telephone calls and I simply asked that my details be removed from the council website at that time. 

“But I can see  if there are contentious issues some members may feel threatened.”

Cllr Andrew Lee’s call for the council to take a pro-active approach and offer members who may feel their concerns are too trivial a range of low-cost security measures was also approved.

The safety initiative will also promote the reporting of incidents of abuse so the council can better understand the scale of the issue and what further actions can be taken to reduce risks for councillors.

The third North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner this year has said on her first day in the £74,000 job that she is confident of being able to handle the intense scrutiny that comes with the role.

Zoe Metcalfe said she wanted to be “very visible” and would use her experience as a North Yorkshire county councillor and as deputy mayor of the Harrogate district to become “the people’s commissioner”.

Both of Ms Metcalfe’s predecessors faced severe criticism over their communications with both their own staff and residents, despite having backgrounds in public relations.

Philip Allott resigned last month after making controversial comments about women. The overwhelming majority of his 32-strong team of staff signed a letter saying they had no confidence in him, accusing him of making “sexist and misogynistic comments” towards female colleagues.

Julia Mulligan, who stepped down from the role in May, accepted a recommendation to regularly survey her staff about bullying and be supported by a mentor in the “challenging and difficult role” after being accused of levelling “constant criticisms” and “humiliating” comments.

Since Ms Metcalfe was elected on Friday, opposition councillors have questioned how she would deal with the pressure of the role, particularly as she had been “almost invisible” at the county council.

County council opposition leader Cllr Stuart Parsons said:

“Zoe is an unknown quantity. When I read on an election leaflet that she was a county councillor I had to look her up because I had not heard her in any debates, apart from obeying the party line. She has been in a public forum for a number of years, but nobody knows who she is or what she is.

“She could be one of those people who has hidden her light under many bushels and she may come out and surprise us, but it is quite difficult to understand how she is going to fulfil the role because all her leaflet said was only women matter. I understand the focus on women, but it would appear all men in North Yorkshire don’t fit into her plan.”

At a media briefing, Ms Metcalfe highlighted how the first appointment had been to meet with victims’ support groups at the force’s Northallerton headquarters, even before meeting with the chief constable and chief fire officer.

She said: 

“I want to be very visible. I will be on the market squares and in the supermarkets, visiting residents and getting their views.”

Top priorities

The Conservative Knaresborough councillor said her first actions would be to bolster victims services, crime prevention work with schools and further action to aid those suffering domestic abuse.

She said:

“I have been a district and county councillor since 2015, I’ve stood for two general elections, I’ve been deputy mayor of Harrogate District for two years and a governor of Harrogate Hospital, so I‘m quite happy with scrutiny. I want to work in a very transparent way and very much have an open-door policy.

“My style is getting out and talking to people. I want people to feel I am very approachable. It’s about embracing the role, taking it forward and making sure people trust in the role to deliver for them.

“I am very firmly here as the people’s commissioner. I am here to represent the residents of North Yorkshire and York when we are having those conversations and will hold the public services to account, but working with them too to achieve their goals is really important.”

Ms Metcalfe said she would be meeting her staff this week and would remain a district and county councillor until the May elections as she did not want public money to be spent on a by-election.

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has revealed how he was held hostage by a “very distressed” constituent.

Carl Les has made the comment as plans for a dedicated fund to provide security advice and measures at the homes of councillors were unveiled.

Cllr Les said the authority had a duty of care to review the arrangements councillors have in place for managing their personal safety when attending meetings and meeting with members of the public alongside a series of other protective changes.

The authority has published security proposals for its 72 elected members as a mass has been held today at Westminster Cathedral for Sir David Amess MP, who was killed serving his constituents.

The move follows some North Yorkshire councillors reporting receiving death threats and having their property vandalised.

A meeting of the council’s executive on Tuesday will consider setting aside £15,000 to pay for temporary or permanent measures that police and security experts on a case by case basis advise are necessary.

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Under the proposals councillors would be able to anonymously apply to the security fund, for which there would be no investigation as to whether there is any evidential support for the councillor’s concerns.

An officer’s report to the meeting states the fund would be “purely a process to help allay councillor concerns as they perceive them to be”.

It added:

“The role of county councillor demands active community engagement and involvement. This often means meeting in person with individuals or groups on a formal or informal basis in a range of different settings. Meetings will often be held in the evening and can be in remote and isolated rural areas where a mobile phone signal may be unreliable.

“County councillors tend not to run surgeries in the communities that they serve. When looking at the circumstances of the killing of Sir David Amess MP and the murder of Jo Cox MP, five years previously, both were at constituency surgeries.”

In an indication of how seriously the authority is viewing the issue, the meeting will look at freeing up designated officers’ time to enable elected members with concerns to contact them to provide information about potentially violent persons before undertaking a home visit.

Cllr Les said the proposals were a proportionate and scaled approach to managing the risk public servants now faced at all levels.

The Catterick Bridge division member said:

“MPs are perhaps at the pinnacle of that risk, but we do know that there have been threats made to local councillors. Every council has a duty of care to make sure its members are well advised to understand the risks and how we can mitigate them.

“There has been a specific case where a member in one part of the county has been threatened with physical violence and one of the safeguards the police have advised in that case is the installation of CCTV.

“We think we should have a small fund in the council to help members who are not in a position to fund extra security measures themselves.

“About ten years ago I went to do a house visit to a constituent who was very distressed about a matter. That person locked me in the house with them in it, put the key in his pocket and was not going to let me out until the council agreed to do what he wanted. It was only because his wife was present who convinced him that was not the right thing to do. It was quite frightening as the man concerned was clearly very distressed.

“There should be no barriers to people standing for election, but there have been incidences of harm done and threats made to people in public office and so we have a duty of care to make sure our councillors and staff are protected against any such threats in the future.”

Cllr Les said it remained unclear whether the situation facing elected representatives had been exacerbated by social media “giving an opportunity for people, usually hiding behind a cloak of anonymity, to be forceful and aggressive in their views”.

In the fourth of a series of articles on crime issues in the Harrogate district, candidates standing to be North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner are questioned on how to stop speeding. 

Commissioner candidates vying to become North Yorkshire’s next Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner say they would launch a hard-hitting educational campaign, pressure for more 20mph limits and even consider drafting in firefighters to help tackle residents’ number one concern – speeding.

Ahead of the residents of York and North Yorkshire going to the polls on Thursday to decide who gets the £74,00-a-year role, the five candidates wanting to succeed Philip Allott, who resigned last month amid controversy, have spoken of their determination to get to grips with road safety enforcement and education.

During his time in the role Mr Allott enlisted academics to help tackle speeding on more than 6,000 miles of roads and in 800 villages, saying demand for enforcement was outstripping police resources.

Most of the 72 county councillors agree speeding, and in particular through villages, is the most common issue that residents raise with them.

In the third of a series of articles on crime issues in the Harrogate district, candidates standing to be North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner are questioned on equality.

Candidates hoping to succeed controversy-hit Philip Allott as North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner have pledged to increase efforts to tackle equality issues facing North Yorkshire’s police and fire services, with one hopeful insisting a community-wide effort is needed to effect lasting change.

However, ahead of York and North Yorkshire residents going to the polls on Thursday, there are differences in the way candidates for the £74,000-a-year role believe equality concerns, both inside and outside the services, should be addressed.

The latest published workforce profile for the fire service from 2018 shows 95% of operational officers are male, and 84% described themselves as white British.

While the service says it supports staff to respect individual values and differences and takes an active part in diversity events, such as Pride, just one per cent of staff said they were homosexual in the profile.

Among the many equality issues North Yorkshire Police is trying to tackle includes a gender gap that is significantly above the national average, despite its chief officer team comprising more women than men.

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The force has said it is committed to setting challenging equality objectives, but the five challengers following Mr Allott resigning over women’s safety comments all insist more could be being done by both services.

Hannah Barham-Brown, Women’s Equality Party

Hannah Barham-Brown, of the Women’s Equality Party said ending gender-based violence would be her top priority, and would work to identify issues that most affect women in North Yorkshire.

She said: 

“Equality is not something that can take place just inside or out of the services – it’s a collective, communal movement that requires the participation and contribution of every member of the community.”

Keith Tordoff, Independent

Independent Keith Tordoff said he would ensure hate crime and hate incidents were being dealt with properly to protect marginalised groups. 

He said: 

“With confidence in the police, recruiting from diverse and ethnic backgrounds will be more likely for the police and fire service of North Yorkshire.”

Emma Scott-Spivey, Labour

Labour candidate Emma Scott-Spivey said equality would be at the heart of all the work she does, adding it would be “hardwired into my police, fire and crime plan and it will be something that I will expect the services I oversee to reflect”.

She said: 

“As will a zero tolerance approach to crime, including hate crime, that targets protected groups. I will be the voice for all people but most of all for those whose views are not being heard.”

James Barker, Liberal Democrat

Making the services “genuinely inclusive places to work where diversity is championed” is vital, said Liberal Democrat James Barker, before adding North Yorkshire “is ahead of the game in some respects in that it was one of the first forces in the country to record misogyny as a hate crime”.

He said: 

“We need to protect and support all of North Yorkshire’s diverse communities, and I will ensure that guidance and training is introduced to make services trans inclusive and implement a strategy to provide specialist BAME and LGBT+ services.”

Zoe Metcalfe, Conservative

Conservative candidate Zoe Metcalfe said she would work with the services to ensure the correct recruitment strategies are in place. 

Mrs Metcalfe said: 

“There can be no room for inequalities in North Yorkshire and I will ensure the commissioner’s office leads the way on equality issues and will work with senior figures within the services so they do likewise.”

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council said he “wants to be a friend of parish councils” after being accused of plunging many into financial uncertainty.

A full meeting of the council heard Cllr Carl Les confirm that some parish councils holding elections next year to bring their polls into line with one for the new unitary authority would face charges for the election despite having little time to raise funding.

The meeting was told how some district councils charged parishes to run elections for them. Councillors heard Richmondshire District Council charged Richmond Town Council £6,000 for the election cycle.

Several opposition members called for clarification, saying many parishes had been left in a state of confusion after Cllr Les had said on October 5 that parish councils would not be charged for the forthcoming elections, before the council’s chief executive had stated parish councils would be charged.

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons said councils such as Richmond, where numerous seats were likely to be contested, would not have enough time to set aside the costs as they norally would because the election had been called by the county council with no consultation with parishes.

Richmondshire Cllr Helen Grant told Cllr Les: 

“The parishes are being disadvantaged. Little parishes have little or no money anyway and as we all know they tend to get their costs in over a four-year period.”

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She said St Martins Parish Council would have to double its tax demand from residents to cover the election and as parishes had the election “foisted” on them by the county council, the upper tier authority should be paying for the elections.

Selby district councillor John McCartney said during Cllr Les’ campaign to get North Yorkshire County Council to be the new authority parish councils were “your new best friends”.

He added: 

“You were going to be their champion, you were going to help them, they could take on responsibilities. But what you’ve done to them is give them uncertainty.”

Cllr Les replied that as a former parish councillor of many years he knew the value of parish councils. 

He said: 

“I do want to be a friend to parish councils. I want to help parish councils, which is why I believe the new authority should not charge, in the same way I don’t think district councils should charge presently.”

He said holding two separate elections for the unitary and parish authorities over two years would have been unreasonably expensive for taxpayers and as parish councils’ budgets were often small compared to district councils, parishes should not be charged for elections by the new authority.

Cllr Les added: 

“The next election is still under the remit of the district councils and it is quite right that it is their decision. Some charge and some don’t.”

Councillors have overwhelmingly voted in favour of approving a pay increase for themselves after being told rejecting it could hamper improving diversity in favour of white, retired men on the authority.

A full meeting of Conservative-led North Yorkshire County Council saw 60 of its 72 members agree to a 1.75% uplift in their basic allowances to £10,316 from April. Two members abstained and two opposed the move.

The rise, which is below the national three per cent rate of inflation in September, had been recommended to the councillors by an independent panel, which concluded the increase was needed “to retain the balance between public duty and a realistic recompense for the time given up, plus commitment and responsibility in undertaking the role”.

It said despite an increase of almost 10% in councillors’ allowances since April 2017, 11 of the 16 comparable county councils paid their elected members more than North Yorkshire.

While the majority of North Yorkshire county councillors are close to or above retirement age, just 19 of its members are women.

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Independent Skipton Cllr Andy Solloway said while metropolitan and parish councils featured diverse membership, the incoming North Yorkshire authority was facing “the very real danger of it being 100% white, 90% male and 80% people of retirement age”.

To improve democratic representation, he called on the political groups to carefully select their candidates for the new authority.

The authority’s leader Cllr Carl Les said:

“No one should feel unable to stand for election for whatever reason. There should be no financial barrier to people standing for public office.”

He said while the overall cost of paying allowances to about 90 members of the new authority would be over and above the amount the county council was currently paying its elected members, that would be offset against district councils no longer having that expense.

Cllr Les called on the authority to accept the panel’s recommendation on the proviso that councillors could chose whether they took none, part or all of the 1.75% increase.

Leader of the authority’s Labour group Cllr Eric Broadbent told the meeting that with many North Yorkshire families struggling financially Labour members had decided to accept the increase and give it to the North Yorkshire local assistance fund.

He claimed if all elected members did the same it would generate money to bring struggling families out of poverty.

Fellow Labour councillor Tony Randerson added: 

“This is not a cheap political point, it is something we feel very strongly about and very sincerely about. For those people who are struggling it would be a massive help if this proposal could find favour.”

The meeting heard the council’s Stronger Communities executive member Cllr David Chance pledge that the local assistance fund was already funded sufficiently to ensure that anyone facing a crisis could be supported.

The authority’s finance boss Cllr Gareth Dadd said many councillors already forego their full allowances or donated part of it to charity “but do not feel the need to advertise it”.

Cllr Les concluded the Labour proposal presented a danger of binding the new authority. He added:

“We need diversity across the political spectrum and I do hope my party will play its part in delivering that diversity.”

A county council charged with overseeing local government reorganisation has dismissed claims of being “totally and utterly unfair” to parish, town and city councils by expecting them to fund their own elections next year.

North Yorkshire County Council’s leadership has hit back saying it is powerless to change the potentially financially difficult situation which is expected to face some of the lowest tier authorities, elections for which have been brought forward a year to May.

When the Implementation Board, which is made of representatives of the county and district councils, submitted the Structural Change Order to government to kick start the process of merging the county and seven district councils, it was agreed parish and town council elections should be brought forward a year to align them to elections for the new authority.

The comments of the county council’s ruling Conservative administration follow opposition councillors stating the move would see parishes would be forced to raise money at short notice to cover any election costs.

Objectors have highlighted how some parishes, particularly ones that are self-funding through means such as car parking, do not charge residents a council tax precept, but the election costs could lead to extra council tax charges.

They have emphasised while the Yorkshire Local Councils Association had advised the upcoming elections would be cost-free for parishes, the county was offering contradictory advice that parish, town and city councils should prepare to pay their normal fees for elections.

Cllr Stuart Parsons, the authority’s opposition leader said parishes accrued funding for elections every four years in their annual budget setting, so would not have sufficient set aside to pay for elections next year.

He said as the county council was expecting to save over £250m with the local authority merger, it “could be a little bit more generous” with the parish election expenses.

Cllr Parsons said:

“I am not impressed by the county council approach as the elections are being called early to suit their move towards unitary, not to benefit the other tier of local government. Because of this parish and town councils will only have one year to set aside the necessary sums for this election instead of the two years they would have had.

“The county council is ignoring the fact that parishes and towns received no government support during the pandemic and that as a result of this most are distinctly short of money. Richmond Town Council lost nearly 50% of its’ annual income with no possibility of support.

“The county council is therefore being totally and utterly unfair in its’ approach. It is failing to recognise the uniqueness of the impending situation and also refusing to accept their own responsibility in creating this situation.”

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However, Cllr Carl Les, the authority’s leader, said whether parishes paid for the elections next year or in the future was out of his administration’s hands.

He said it would be entirely up to the new authority to decide whether it made parish and town councils make contributions towards election expenses, but he did not believe holding elections for separate councils at different times represented a fair deal for the county’s taxpayers.

Cllr Les added:

“Some of us are proposing that we don’t think that it is right that the new authority should make a charge to parish councils for election expenses where the principle authority is holding an election anyway. We can’t bind the new authority to that.

“Unfortunately some people are taking that to mean there shouldn’t be a charge for the 2022 elections. We can’t do anything about the elections in May as they are still in the control of the district councils as the returning bodies. Some district councils charge for election expenses and some don’t, so all we can do is have a conversation with them leaing up to that election.”