Could Tour de Yorkshire money be spent on Festival of Yorkshire instead?

Calls are mounting for the millions of pounds of taxpayers money set aside to fund next year’s Tour de Yorkshire to be used to stage a cultural festival instead.

The cycle race was cancelled on Tuesday and yesterday leading councillors said the public purse funds earmarked for the event should be used to bankroll the week-long Festival of Yorkshire, which Welcome to Yorkshire had hoped to run alongside the race.

Councillors hope an expansive event celebrating the region’s food and drink, arts and culture, heritage and music would act as a springboard for the economy after the pandemic.

North Yorkshire County Council set aside up to £200,000 for next year’s event. The authority’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, said he hoped the race’s organisers could look at whether the festival programme element of the Tour de Yorkshire could still be held next year.

He said:

“I would support continuing with the festival idea, which was the idea linked to the cycle race. I do hope that the race is only postponed and that we will be talking about having a race again in 2023.

“It’s hard to think of another event that touches so many different parts of the county and the region of Yorkshire and joins them all up together.”

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When asked to comment on calls for the money to be used to enable more people to cycle, he said the county council was already spending “a considerable amount of money on developing cycling routes”.

He added the money saved from next year’s Tour de Yorkshire would not go far in developing the network in North Yorkshire.

 

Bid to tackle falling standards at North Yorkshire schools

Experts are to be sent into North Yorkshire’s schools to address concerns about declining standards.

North Yorkshire County Council is acting after the proportion of its schools rated as good or outstanding fell significantly behind the national average.

As of last month, 80.5 per cent of primary pupils in the county attended a school rated good or outstanding by Ofsted compared to the national average of 88.2 per cent.

In addition, a smaller proportion of the county’s local education authority-run secondary schools have been rated as performing well compared to the national average.

The council has now created a team of analysts to send into schools to drive up standards.

It has identified high level issues at 23 of its schools and moderate concerns at 79 others, representing a total of 40 per cent of its schools.

A meeting of the council’s executive this week heard the issue was being compounded by the authority being unaware of how well its schools were meeting children’s educational needs because there had been very few Ofsted inspections during the pandemic.

Councillor Patrick Mulligan, the council’s executive member for education, said areas of concern included attendance and exclusion rates, but the council’s figures were dated or likely to have been significantly skewed by the pandemic. He said:

“There could be all sorts of explanations as to why this has happened, but what we are doing is looking at increasing the resources for our school improvement team so they can focus on some of these schools that are not performing as well as they should be.

“We will do everything we can to try and get on top of this, but we are all concerned about it and get things in motion.

“On the whole our children get a very good education. We have got very good teachers and school leadership and that is reflected in our exam results.”

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Cllr Mulligan said the council was continuing to examine why its schools had received lower ratings than average, but he thought the authority was getting on top of the situation having set up a team of analysts to go into schools when invited by headteachers. He added:

“There has been a little increase in school funding in the last year or two, but over the years of austerity if schools had to let staff go it is very concerning if that is being reflected in school performance.

“One of the latest things that Ofsted has done is add breadth of curriculum to the inspections, which is quite difficult to do in North Yorkshire schools with just 50 pupils, which don’t have the staff levels for some subjects. If that’s the case, then it needs to be taken into account by Ofsted.”

Concerns about rising number of home educated children

The meeting also heard educational concerns had been raised as the number of home educated children was continuing to soar, with some 871 children being taught at home in the county in June compared with 650 at the end of March 2019.

Members heard while traditionally the authority had concentrated efforts on ensuring home educated children were safe, it had recently started examining the quality of the education being provided.

Councillors were told four home education advisors had been recruited to help families, some of which may not have suitable teaching plans in place having chosen home education as a last resort.

Crackdown on utility companies that leave North Yorkshire roads in a poor state

A highways authority experiencing a huge cut in road maintenance funding has signalled its determination to crackdown on utility companies that fail to properly restore roads after digging them up.

A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive this week heard shoddy reinstatement of roads by sewage, water, electricity, gas and communications firms was responsible for “well over half” of potholes across the country’s largest road network.

The meeting discussed ways to get utility firms to “sharpen their pencils” and improve performance.

One idea was to introduce road metering whereby firms would be charged according to the amount of time they spent on site, meaning putting right poor workmanship would prove more costly.

The Department of Transport announced this year North Yorkshire County Council would receive £37 million to maintain roads in 2021/22, £12.6 million less than the previous year. Whitehall bosses estimated the £16.5 million earmarked specifically for potholes in the county could repair 329,000 cavities.

The funding announcement came two years after the Department for Transport launched a consultation to help councils tackle the potholes by making utility companies ensure the safety of roads for up to five years. However, it has emerged the proposal has been postponed due to fears of creating “unintended consequences” for utility firms.

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Street Works UK, a trade association representing utility companies, has said the five-year rule would be unnecessary and that the sector’s roadworks performance is much better than local authorities.

The debate has also seen the RAC Foundation describe potholes as “the bane of road users’ lives” and call for utility firms to be held responsible for the quality of their road repairs.

‘Utility firms must be held to account’

Nevertheless, Councillor Stanley Lumley, a Conservative representing Pateley Bridge and chairman of the authority’s transport, economy and environment overview and scrutiny committee, told the executive there were clear variances in the condition of roads across North Yorkshire and utility firms needed to be held to account.

“It’s a great shame that we invest a lot of money in maintaining these roads and then a utility company can come along and do a poor reinstatement and that results in a bad reflection on the county.”

Councillor Don Mackenzie, a Conservative representing Harrogate Saltergate and the council’s executive member for access, said he believed well over half the county’s potholes were caused by poor remedial works following excavations. But he stressed only three per cent of the county’s principle roads were in need of repair.

“Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to stop the utility companies breaking into our highways. They have a statutory right to access their equipment, replace or repair it.

“It is something that we must monitor very closely and is something that I personally am very concerned about. We shall ensure that we continue to improve the quality of those reinstatements.”

Cllr Mackenzie said the council had introduced a roadworks permits scheme a few years ago, which had generated funding to employ people to monitor utility firms’ work and led to financial penalties being imposed on utility companies for poor workmanship.

County council leader announces executive reshuffle nine months before elections

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has announced a reshuffle of his executive team just nine months before elections are due to be held.

Cllr Carl Les said, while the majority of the positions on the authority’s executive would remain the same, he wanted to give more of his 54-member Conservative group “the chance to serve” ahead of the first North Yorkshire Council elections on May 5.

The changes, which are set to be considered by the executive on August 24, will see former Scarborough Borough Council leader, Cllr Derek Bastiman, brought onto the council’s leadership group of 10 members for the first time as the open to business portfolio holder.

The current open to business executive member, Cllr Andrew Lee, who represents Cawood in Selby district, is scheduled to take over the public health brief, which Northallerton Cllr Caroline Dickinson has held for several years.

Over the past 18 months Cllr Dickinson has faced scrutiny with one of the heaviest workloads of any of the authority’s members, having responsibility for the county’s public health response to the covid pandemic.

Cllr Les said the decision to replace her on the executive did not reflect her contribution or efforts, but the fact that the administration had been given a “bonus year” due to local government reorganisation.

He said: 

“This is no indication of Cllr Dickinson’s performance whatsoever. She has done very well. If you leave everybody in the same positions all the time the people who haven’t got those positions don’t have an opportunity to serve.

“It is a truism that if you don’t make changes other people don’t get a chance to serve. There’s got to be some change built into the system. I wanted to make some changes over a year ago, but covid got in the way and I didn’t think it was appropriate at that time to make some changes. Now we have got  bonus year.”

The reshuffle comes as the authority agreed to set up a working group to develop a proposal for government over the number of elected members and the areas they should represent on the new council.

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While there are calls to double the amount of councillors currently serving on the county council due to the additional responsibilities, it is understood many believe having 144 councillors would be unworkable.

Instead, some cross-party support has been expressed for limiting the new authority to 90 elected members, just 18 more than serve on the county council.

Cllr Les said responsibility for climate change action was being officially added to Pickering Cllr Greg White’s customer engagement portfolio as he was already undertaking the majority of the work in that area.

With 54 Conservative members, opposition councillors said Cllr Les faced a difficult task keeping all of his group happy and while balancing representation on the executive across the county’s six districts. In addition, they highlighted the changes meant just one executive member was a woman.

Opposition councillors also questioned whether the reshuffle was designed to prepare the way for North Yorkshire Council, but Cllr Les dismissed suggestions the changes signified any shift in direction for the council.

The reshuffle comes as the authority agreed to set up a working group to develop a proposal for government over the number of elected members and the areas they should represent on the new council.

While there are calls to double the amount of councillors currently serving on the county council due to the additional responsibilities, it is understood many believe having 144 councillors would be unworkable.

Instead, some cross-party support has been expressed for limiting the new authority to 90 elected members, just 18 more than serve on the county council.

‘Failure’ over weeds leaves North Yorkshire looking ‘like a jungle’

North Yorkshire County Council has been accused of a “total and utter failure” to prevent weeds from overgrowing pavements.

The county council is the highways authority, responsible for more than 9,000 kilometres of roads.

A full meeting of the council heard that residents from across North Yorkshire had voiced disbelief and anger over the volume of weeds left to grow up to two-and-a-half foot high besides roads.

The meeting heard that weeds were a problem across North Yorkshire and that more environmentally-friendly ways of killing weeds, such as hot water or steam treatments, were being used in Harrogate.

Several councillors spoke out about problems in their areas.

Councillor Helen Grant, the North Yorkshire Independent group representative for Central Richmondshire, described the standard of roads and pavements around Catterick as “appalling”.

Cllr Robert Heseltine, an independent for Skipton East, said the traditional back streets of Skipton had become “like a jungle”.

Cllr Heseltine added:

“I’ve had more complaints over this issue than I’ve had over everything else in 40-odd years of public life.”

Combine harvester needed to tackle weeds

Stokesley division Liberal Democrat member Cllr Bryn Griffiths told the meeting urgent action was needed. He said:

“I’ve got comments from residents in Tame Bridge. Their pavements look more like a green corridor for wildlife. You are probably talking about a combine harvester going around some of our estates to get the weeds out.

“What we are looking at is gullies getting blocked in future and we’ll have flooding which is entirely avoidable.”

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The meeting heard claims that the amount of weeds was also due to the authority using particularly weak weedkiller and deciding to start clearing weeds at the end of July instead of in May.

Richmond Cllr Stuart Parsons, the North Yorkshire Independents group leader, said the weed situation was “a total and utter failing”, adding:

“If the county council doesn’t get its act together soon it’s going to find itself with a massive repair bill for all the pavements.”

Mild winters

In response, the authority’s executive member for highways, Cllr Don Mackenzie, who is also the Conservative representative for Harrogate Saltergate, said he was aware that areas close to the kerbs had become “quite affected by weed growth” and the council recognised that residents wanted weeds to be dealt with.

He said an increase in weeds was being experienced throughout the country due to mild winters, reduced use of salt, less traffic and pedestrians, and the council did not want to use chemicals more than once annually due to the environmental consequences.

Councillor Mackenzie denied there had been an issue handing contracts to NY Highways, which he said was experimenting in Harrogate with other more environmentally-friendly ways of killing weeds, such as hot water or steam treatments.

After saying residents were free to spend five minutes clearing weeds from gutters, Cllr Mackenzie was accused of “smoke and mirrors” to hide the gravity of the issue and that the concerns involved some busy roads.

37-year bid to create public footpath in Masham woods rejected

A 37-year bid to recognise a public right of way in a popular woodland near Masham looks doomed to failure.

In 1984, a request to enshrine public rights across the 47-hectare Hackfall Woods was lodged with North Yorkshire County Council.

Councillors are now calling on George Eustice, Secretary of State for the Environment, to dismiss the order. They say it is partly due to the difficulty in establishing how many people walked on the routes between 1964-84.

The order, which anyone can seek if a path that has been used as a right of way for years is not shown on maps, was made on the basis of user evidence at the time of an application in 1984. The application aimed to ensure the public would always have access to routes through the woods, which were not recorded as rights of way.

Michael Leah, the council’s assistant director for travel and the environment, said the council had taken steps to add two public paths to the map as part of a concerted effort to clear a backlog of historic applications. He added:

“North Yorkshire has the biggest network of public rights of way in the country and due to budgetary constraints we have limited resources to manage the network. We have therefore worked on priority applications where recognised public footpaths have been under threat from change of ownership or change of use.

“As the public has been able to use freely the paths through Hackfall Woods the application was never treated as a priority.”

Before issuing the order, the council carried out a consultation and contacted the Woodland Trust, which leases the woods. The trust objected to the order as the landowner had a permit system in place to allow the public permissive use of paths through the woods.

Mr Leah said:

“The effect of this is to negate the acquisition of public rights. Had we been made aware of this issue we would not have made the order.

“Because the order has attracted an objection, we are required by law to submit it to the Secretary of State for a decision on whether or not it should be confirmed.”

The council has concluded that the trust’s evidence, along with the limited likelihood of now obtaining clear evidence establishing that the public had access to the order route ‘as of right’ between 1964 and 1984 meant the public’s right to walk in the woods would be difficult to demonstrate on the balance of probability.

Hackfall Woods history

Hackfall Woods, which is in a gorge of the River Ure, has been a popular visitor destination for centuries. William Wordsworth recommended Hackfall as an approach to the Lake District from Yorkshire in one of his tourist guides, while  JMW Turner sketched and painted the landscape in 1816.

It features follies, grottoes, surprise views, waterfalls and a fountain created by the family of South Sea Bubble disgrace Chancellor of the Exchequer and Studley Royal landscaper, John Aislabie who bought Hackfall wood for £906 in 1731. It is believed he bought the woodland to get stone and timber to use at Studley Royal.

From 1851 the Marquis of Ripon, who was Viceroy of India and Grand Master Mason, extended footpaths and as transport became more widely available in the late 1800s the popularity of Hackfall as a visitor attraction grew.

Funding for Tour de Yorkshire to be reviewed next year

North Yorkshire County Council has said it will review whether to continue funding the Tour de Yorkshire from the public purse.

Senior county councillors agreed yesterday to give next year’s race £200,000 worth of support but agreed to review its future after it has been held.

Councillors approved a payment of £100,000 to fund the event and to set aside a further £100,000 to underwrite any failure to secure sponsorship.

It comes after Amaury Sports Organisation, which is part of a French media group that owns the event and co-organises it with Welcome to Yorkshire, said last week it would not cover the costs of the race.

A meeting of the council’s executive heard “most if not all” local authorities responsible for next year’s start and finish towns and cities of Leyburn, Barnsley, Beverley, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Redcar and Skipton have agreed to pay race organisers up to £100,000 extra if Welcome to Yorkshire fails to raise sufficient sponsorship for the event.

The tourism body approached the councils, which have also approved paying hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees to ASO, to help guarantee the event after the French media group firm stated it was no longer prepared to shoulder any potential losses despite standing to profit from it.

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The meeting saw the county council’s leading members agree to the funding on the condition the authority undertakes two reviews following the sixth edition of the race.

Cllr Gareth Dadd, the county council’s deputy leader, said twin reviews would examine the event’s impact, such as how much sponsorship and media coverage it generated, and “the principle of support” for one-off events.

Growing unease

Whether public money should be used for cycling races has not been thoroughly examined by any council in the region since council tax was first used to help host the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2014.

The reviews follow growing unease among some of the region’s councillors, and strong opposition being voiced by others, about council tax being prioritised for an elite cycling race over community infrastructure and services. Many residents financially struggling from the pandemic are being asked to pay more council tax.

Sources at a number of district and borough councils in North Yorkshire say there is little appetite to fund cycling events in the near future, particularly after the rain-affected 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Harrogate caused such disruption and travel problems.

However, numerous elected members continue to point towards the economic impact of the events on the region’s economy. An independent study found in 2018 alone the Tour de Yorkshire generated £98 million as some 2.6 million spectators lined the route and many others saw some of the area’s most spectacular landscapes on television.

After county council leader Cllr Carl Les left the meeting because he is a Welcome to Yorkshire board member, Cllr Dadd emphasised to the executive the vote over whether to agree to underwrite next year’s event was “not a decision over Welcome to Yorkshire and its existence” but purely about the Tour de Yorkshire.

He said: 

“It is a vital part or has been a vital part of North Yorkshire’s economy. Now more than ever we shouldn’t be turning our back on opportunities.

“The information that we have received is that all those councils that have a start and finish have been asked to contribute in a similar manner and I think most of them if not all have pledged to do so.

“We have a leadership responsibility in North Yorkshire. As the top tier authority I think we have a duty to support anything that could have potential benefits to tourism.”

Council urged to consider social benefits of 20mph North Yorks speed limits

Engineers behind decisions over the introduction of 20mph speed limits across North Yorkshire have been urged to consider the social benefits of such a move.

Councillors who helped shape North Yorkshire County Council’s new 20mph zone policy said numerous communities and schools, which had spent years trying to get consent for the low speed limit had recently been left frustrated again, due to highways officers sticking to a fixed and often unachievable set of criteria.

The policy is currently under review and a number of recommendations have been made, including the council compiling a list of schools which have 20mph limits outside them.

However, a full report on the new policy is not expected until a later date.

Councillors said despite the apparent change in policy designed to enable more communities to feel safe, the council’s criteria for a 20mph zone appeared to have remained “quite stringent”.

They were told value for money and accident statistics were two criteria highways engineers considered.

But Harrogate Bilton and Nidd Gorge division member Paul Haslam said figures such as deaths from vehicle emissions and the social return for a community could also be examined.

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Meanwhile, the committee’s chairman Cllr Stanley Lumley told officers: 

“There has to be a technical element to this with regard to data collection, but we strongly recommended to the executive this shouldn’t just be about numbers.

“It should be about local perception and local need. That part of the recommendation is the bit that’s failing in my experience since that report went back. This committee felt local need should have more weight than just statistical evidence.”

Senior officers said although residents’ feelings would in future be given further consideration the authority would need to continue to use Department for Transport guidance when setting speed limits.

They added combining statistics with subjective factors was difficult, but that the authority had been receiving money from the government’s Safer Roads Fund for a few years to tackle areas with perceived rather than actual road safety issues.

An officer told the meeting:

“We are guilty in the past of looking more at that statistical side of things, there’s a need for that, but the mindset is changing, certainly over the last 12 months.”

Blanket 20mph policy

Meanwhile, the committee heard a key recommendation of its inquiry into whether a blanket 20mph zone should be launched in all built up areas of the county was that residents’ perceptions should be prioritised in decision-making.

Ainsty division Cllr Andy Paraskos told the committee a speed survey in a small, linear village in his area had revealed it had a clear speeding issue, but highways officers had concluded £100,000 of works would be needed just for the village to meet the criteria for having a 20mph speed limit.

Cllr Paraskos said while there was no way a small village could raise £100,000, it would also struggle to meet the criteria as the road was too narrow to include a cycle lane and there were too few verges for a roadside route.

Race organisers ‘not prepared’ to cover Tour de Yorkshire losses

The company that owns the Tour de Yorkshire is “no longer prepared” to underwrite the event, according to a county council report.

A paper to be considered by North Yorkshire County Council’s executive on Tuesday next week says Amaury Sports Organisation, which is part of a French media group that owns and organises major sports events, would not cover the costs.

This has prompted the council to offer the tourism organisation Welcome to Yorkshire, which organises the Tour de Yorkshire in conjunction with Amaury Sports Organisation, up to £200,000 to stage the race.

Welcome to Yorkshire’s strategy to fund the elite international cycling event in May next year has emerged as it was revealed Yorkshire taxpayers are being asked to underwrite the event by up to £900,000.

Welcome to Yorkshire has requested funding from numerous local authorities which are host towns for the race in case it fails to get sponsorship.

Harrogate Borough Council is not one of them but Harrogate district people will still fund the event through the portion of their council tax payments that goes to North Yorkshire County Council.

Senior county councillors have been recommended to approve a payment of £100,000 to fund the event and to set aside a further £100,000 to underwrite any failure to secure sponsorship.

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Asked to comment about whether Amaury Sports Organisation should underwrite the event as it stood to make profits, Cllr Carl Les, leader of the county council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:

He said:

“You could argue that. Clearly Amaury Sports Organisation don’t want to do that. The alternative then is to not hold the race and, but bear in mind it is an important part of the cycling calendar and it can also serve as a great marketing tool for the areas it goes through, it is worth our while to continue with the race.”

Meanwhile, plans to overhaul the Tour de Yorkshire’s image by aligning the event with prevalent societal values, such as equality, diversity, mental health and sustainability, have received a mixed reaction.

Welcome to Yorkshire said that, following a very difficult two years for all involved, the race needed to be seen as a genuine celebration of Yorkshire as opposed to just a bike race.

This will mean a much longer lead into the race featuring events celebrating Yorkshire’s culture, heritage, arts, crafts, food and drink with the race being the headline act of “nine months of activation”.

Nevertheless, the sponsorship strategy of highlighting the event’s values, such as equality has already been questioned, with some critics highlighting how the event features a two-day race for women and a higher profile four-day race for men.

The unveiling of the proposals, which include aligning the Tour de Yorkshire with the value of diversity, comes just a week after Nic Diamini made headlines by becoming the first black South African to ride in the Tour de France, the pinnacle of what has been dubbed “the world’s whitest sport”.

Cllr Les, who is also a Welcome to Yorkshire board member, said the fresh approach to sponsorship along social value lines was “a very sound idea”.

However, councillor Stuart Parsons, leader of the authority’s Independent group, said staging a two-day women’s race and a four-day men’s event would “not promote equality in any way, shape or form”.

Police ‘would not support’ blanket 20mph limit in parts of North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire Police has said it would not support a blanket 20mph limit policy in towns and villages in the Harrogate district and across the county, despite calls from campaigners.

North Yorkshire County Council is facing calls for another review of its road safety policy just days before councillors consider a series of nine recommendations to update its 20mph speed limit policy.

It comes as schools in the Harrogate district have called for 20mph to improve road safety for children.

Last September, Killinghall Primary School headteacher, Sarah Bassitt, urged the authority to take action before a child is killed or seriously injured on the 30mph stretch of main road outside its building.

Campaigners have claimed the county council, which undertook a 15-month inquiry into its 20mph zone policy, has ignored crucial evidence as well as the benefits of introducing the limit across all towns and villages.

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The authority’s transport scrutiny committee will examine proposals to make its policy more explicit in considering 20mph speed limits around schools, as well as extending the distance traditionally considered around schools in order to encourage greater use of active modes of transport.

Other key changes it will consider include the production of a list of high-risk collision areas using three years’ worth of data to examine whether an area would benefit from a 20mph speed limit.

However, a meeting of the council’s Thirsk and Malton constituency committee heard campaigners remained unhappy with the recommendations.

Campaigner Ian Conlon claimed the support of Philip Allott, the county’s police, fire and crime commissioner, “for default 20mph zones in all towns and villages”. 

He added children, elderly and vulnerable people were being “disproportionately excluded from public space” by allowing cars to travel at 30mph in towns and villages.

Mr Conlon said the council was not addressing the positive impacts of 20mph zones, such as people feeling safer and children playing outside.

He said: 

“It does not assess the evidence from other area that have developed 20mph speed limits. It is only looking backwards, at what North Yorkshire has done, rather than what it could do.”

Councillors heard North Yorkshire Police would not support a blanket 20mph limit and that they needed to be self-enforcing, either through driver behaviour or physical measures.

In addition, ahead of being elected in Mr Allott pledged he would only “support and implement 20mph in urban locations, where local authorities are prepared to support it”.

Mr Allott told the Stray Ferret that he would support local authorities judging 20mph zones on a “case by case basis”.

He said:

“It’s sensible that local authorities do not have their hands tied. Providing that a local authority supports it [a 20mph zone], I will support it.”

The council’s deputy leader and former highways boss Cllr Gareth Dadd told the meeting it “would be foolish to usurp the findings” of the inquiry,

Meanwhile, a member of the investigating team, Cllr Roberta Swiers, said although she had initially believed a blanket 20mph limit would be a good idea, the evidence had proved it was not “the safe answer”.