New pricing policy aims to secure future of Bewerley Park

North Yorkshire County Council has said it is determined to secure a future for Bewerley Park outdoor education centre after widespread opposition to its plans to mothball the site.

The council has unveiled plans to introduce a trial seasonal pricing policy at the centre, near Pateley Bridge as well as at its other outdoor education centre in East Barnby, near Whitby.

The review could also see sweeping changes to the centres’ buildings, more investment and the sites amalgamated to make them more efficient.

Councillors and officers will tomorrow consider approving the moves for the coming year, when the centres have been reopened for residential visits, to see if it stimulates extra use of the centres by schools at colder times of the year.

Popular with Harrogate district children

In February the county council said it had never proposed completely closing the centres, but was rather seeking ways to stem the £1.6m losses due to the pandemic.

The changes would see the cost of staying at the centres, which have been visited by generations of children in the Harrogate district, rising slightly at high season and falling at low season.

The proposal would mean the cost of a four-night stay rising by 33 per cent since 2015 to £358.

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Amanda Newbold, the council’s assistant director of education and skills, said an outline business case was being prepared, which would be considered by the authority’s executive in September.

She said it had been discovered prefabricated buildings at East Barnby, the site of RAF Goldsborough’s accommodation and base to 5131 Bomb Disposal Squadron RAF, had “a bit of an issue with asbestos”.

Strong political will

Councillor Patrick Mulligan, the authority’s executive member for education, said the large volume of schools responding to a consultation over the centres had underlined the “huge amount of support” the sites had.

He said there was a strong political will to ensure children could benefit from visits to the centres for many years to come.

Councillor Mulligan said the proposed fees and charges structure would provide a basis for the service to cover its costs, as had been the case in previous years.

He said:

“We are doing everything we can to make sure it is a viable service. We are not ruling out any options.”

He added the biggest challenge facing the council was the age of the buildings, particularly the ones at Bewerley Park, which were designed to be temporary when they were built 80 years ago to house hundreds of evacuees from Leeds.

Quarry plan near Masham ‘could boost ecology’, says study

A proposal to create a quarry the size of 50 football pitches across arable fields near Masham could lead to a range of long-term ecological benefits, a study has concluded.

Lightwater Quarries, which is based in North Stainley, plans to extract up to 500,000 tonnes of limestone annually between next year and 2037 from its Gebdykes Quarry site near Masham.

Stone from the quarry has been used to restore numerous historic buildings and villages in the Lower Wensleydale and Ripon area, including Markington, Masham and the Howe Hill Tower.

The firm’s limestone is also used for path chippings, roads and for concrete mix.

North Yorkshire County Council will now decide whether the 33.7-hectare quarry, which has been worked since 1949 and is nearing exhaustion of the currently permitted reserves, can be extended by 27 hectares.

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An environmental impact assessment report by consultancy Wardell Armstrong says despite the size of the quarry, the impact of extending it in the Lower Wensleydale landscape would be minimal as it would be “very well screened”.

The extension area would be included in a new restoration masterplan for the entire quarry.

The report states while there are a number of other active quarries in the area, including Bell Flask Quarry, Ripon sand and gravel quarry, Nosterfield sand and gravel quarry and Potgate limestone quarry, restoration proposals will result in “a likely enhancement of ecological resources”.

It said the northern extension at Gebdykes Quarry would result in disturbance or displacement of ecological receptors but mitigation procedures and habitat enhancement measures would provide an increase in habitats, foraging and commuting resources.

Cllr Neil Pickard, chairman of Masham Parish Council, said the quarry extension would have little impact on residents, but would help continue the benefits the local economy felt from nearby quarrying, including jobs for HGV drivers.

However, Cllr Pickard said the parish council awaited plans to see how the developers proposed to link the quarry to the north and south of Limekiln Lane.

He added the industry could bring further benefits to the area in the coming years with plans expected to be tabled from another nearby quarry, which would see the issue of flooding in shops and properties in Silver Street dealt with.

‘Extremely urgent’ action required to tackle NHS dentist shortage

Health bosses have insisted they are doing everything possible to attract NHS dentists to set up in North Yorkshire after admitting there is a growing backlog of patients awaiting treatment.

After grilling NHS bosses responsible for dentistry across the region, North Yorkshire’s scrutiny of health committee concluded the health service needs to take “extremely urgent” action to address dire access to services.

It comes as the Stray Ferret revealed in March that just two NHS dentists in the Harrogate district were accepting new patients — and both have a waiting time of at least two-and-a-half years.

At the time, Cllr John Ennis, chair of the health scrutiny committee for North Yorkshire, described the findings as “shocking”.

‘Residents demand explanations’

The health committee meeting heard that over the past 12 months, practices in North Yorkshire had started handing back NHS contracts and others had been terminated for failing to provide contracted services.

Of the 100 remaining dentistry NHS contracts in the county, some only take children as NHS patients if their parents pay for private treatment and others that do take adult NHS patients report waiting lists of more than 8,000 patients.

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Cllr Tony Randerson told the meeting that residents were demanding explanations as to why parents were having to take children as young as six to places such as Middlesbrough and face bills of £100 for check-ups.

He called on the county council to put pressure on the government to improve access to NHS dentistry.

Cllr Randerson said:

“The government has got a responsibility to look after not only the small few that can afford private treatment, but everybody. It is a duty of care.

“It’s absolutely criminal that these people are having to travel as far away as Hull or Leeds if they are fortunate enough to get an appointment, and not necessarily NHS appointments. This cannot be allowed to go on.”

The meeting heard access to NHS dentistry had been grave in some areas for many years.

NHS dentistry commissioner Debbie Pattinson said that due to nationally imposed pandemic restrictions practices were continuing to operate at about 60 per cent capacity. 

She emphasised practices had been asked to prioritise those in need of urgent care.

Ms Pattinson said: 

“We’ve got a growing backlog, a growing number of people who want a regular check up and cant get one.

“It is unprecedented. We’ve not known anything like it in North Yorkshire with the contracts coming back.”

Managing perceptions

However, she added NHS bosses were working to manage “public perceptions”. 

She said: 

“Dentistry isn’t free. It is a subsidised service.”

Ms Pattinson said finding replacement practices was proving difficult as due to covid restrictions “nobody wants to take on more activity”.

Nevertheless, she said the NHS hoped to have commissioned some out of hours urgent care appointments on Saturdays at a number of different clinics in bigger towns across North Yorkshire by the beginning of October.

To target inequality, North Yorkshire and Humber Local Dental Network chairman Simon Hearnshaw said the NHS was looking at introducing a dentistry programme for children linking a practice to a school, supporting supervised brushing, increasing fluoride, and supporting access to care.

He added the NHS was “trying extremely hard” to improve provision, which included examining incentivising practices to set up in areas of county with no NHS dental cover.

Uber-style bus service to be rolled out in Ripon

Uber-style bus services, where people book rides from bus stop to bus stop using an app, look set to be rolled out across North Yorkshire if a trial starting next month is successful.

A year-long pilot scheme will be launched in the Bedale, Ripon and Masham area on July 1.

North Yorkshire County Council is optimistic the scheme, which will cost £1.20 per ride within the zone and also be available to concessionary bus pass holders.

The authority has been facing calls for years from transport campaigners to introduce or at least investigate on-demand services amid protests from some villagers that disappearing bus services left them isolated.

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While the conclusions of the county council’s Rural Commission are expected soon, the Campaign for Better Transport has found between 2010/11 and 2016/17 the council cut bus service support by 78 per cent, among the highest reductions in the country.

Passengers will be able to book a bus ride through an app or by phoning the council’s customer service centre.

The bus drivers will be notified about bookings in real time on a screen similar to a sat-nav, featuring software that calculates the most efficient routes. The software will also prevent bookings where there is already a commercial bus service operating to avoid affecting the viability of those services.

A council spokeswoman said the new service differed from taxis in that they might not take the most direct route, passengers may need to wait to be picked up and the service will operate from bus stop to bus stop.

She said: 

“We do realise it is quite a different way of offering a bus service so we are having quite a comprehensive marketing campaign to highlight to passengers in the pilot area about how they can access and use it, including a series of roadshows in communities.”

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The authority’s leader Cllr Carl Les said he hoped the council would agree upon a bus service improvement plan that included on-demand buses.

He said: 

“We all want to see an improvement in public transport, but we don’t want to go back to the days of empty buses running through our villages, because that’s not good for cost and it’s certainly not good for carbon.”

Cllr Les said transport minister Baroness Vere had stated she was a fan of demand-responsive bus services at a recent meeting, 

He said: 

“I’m really hoping that the pilot will work well, and if it does we will be able to roll it our very rapidly across the county because we will have the support of the minister if that’s what we want to do.”

Cllr Les said while a key plank of Boris Johnson’s plans for a post-pandemic recovery was his Bus Back Better initiative, this raised the question of taking on bus service franchising in North Yorkshire.

He said:

“I don’t agree with that as an approach. We shouldn’t nationalise buses. That might be the approach that Greater Manchester want to take or even West Yorkshire, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for North Yorkshire.”

Local taxpayers may contribute to further Tour de Yorkshire funding

North Yorkshire County Council is in early discussions with Welcome to Yorkshire over funding next year’s Tour de Yorkshire if the body fails to get sponsorship.

The event, which is usually held over the May Day bank holiday weekend, has not taken place for the last two years due to covid.

The request for funding in 2022 is understood to have been made to numerous local authorities, which are host towns for the race.

As Harrogate is not a host town, Harrogate Borough Council is not expected to contribute to the costs. But if North Yorkshire County Council agrees to do so then everyone in the county would pay through their council tax.

The race is being promoted as an opportunity to aid economic recovery across the region, and in particular in host towns and cities of Leyburn, Barnsley, Beverly, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Redcar and Skipton.

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Richard Flinton, chief executive at North Yorkshire County Council, said: 

“We are in early discussions about what is needed to enable the Tour de Yorkshire to take place, including whether there needs to be any underwriting of the sponsorship element that Welcome to Yorkshire wants to raise. 

“We have not yet taken any decisions about the Tour de Yorkshire.”

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Richmondshire District Council is among the district councils that may be asked to contribute to the event.

An officer’s report to a council meeting next Tuesday said in addition to the usual estimated costs of hosting a stage of the event, “there may be a requirement to underwrite a further amount by the end of June to allow Welcome to Yorkshire to commit to the race”.

The report states there would be a potential extra £100,000 cost to Richmondshire council alone, on top of the £160,000 it has already agreed to pay, if Welcome to Yorkshire is unable to secure sufficient sponsorship.

The report suggests some of the extra funds could be drawn from the council’s dwindling reserves.

Richmondshire council’s corporate board spokesman, Cllr Stuart Parsons, said the authority would debate whether offering extra funds on a weather-dependent event would be value for money.

He said: 

“Personally speaking, if we are able to raise the money that Welcome to Yorkshire expects we should be investing that money in expanding events that directly function in Richmondshire, like the Swaledale Festival and Richmond Walking and Book Festival as they would bring in a much longer term gain for the local economy.”

‘No better promotion’

However, Cllr Carl Les, Welcome to Yorkshire board member and county council leader, rejected the criticisms, saying it was a duty of councils to promote their areas to a wider audience.

He added: 

“I am satisfied with the probity and governance arrangements around Welcome to Yorkshire. There’s a new chairman and a new chief executive in place, new board members and audit and other controls in place following reports by Clarion Solicitors and accountants BDO.

“While staycation is going to of benefit this year, in future years we are going to have to be more competitive with other destinations, so we need to set out our stall the best we can, and there isn’t a better way of promoting the geography of an area than following a cycle race as it goes on television for hours. If you had to buy that sort of advertising it would cost millions.”

Sweeping changes ahead for district’s public health services for children

North Yorkshire County Council looks set to ratify a partnership with Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust to introduce sweeping changes to public health services for children, which include cuts to school nursing and health visiting.

On Tuesday North Yorkshire County Council’s executive will consider entering an agreement with the foundation Trust with the aim of “improving outcomes for children and their families”.

The move, which has been developed over the last two years initially aimed to save £6.75m over a decade in response to Government public health cuts, which were announced a year before the pandemic.

The transformed Healthy Child Programme would see a cut to the number of mandated home visits carried out by health visitors following the birth of children and end checks at school, such as hearing and vision tests, which have identified health issues for generations of pupils.

Leader of the council’s Independent group, councillor Stuart Parsons, has described the move as “short-termism”, saying it would have a knock-on impacts, ranging from education to long-term health.

Nevertheless, the authority’s children’s services boss councillor Janet Sanderson says the overhaul will lead to service users’ experiences improving, cutting duplication, removing gaps in the system, enabling information sharing an ensuring interventions are evidence-based.

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Following concerns and several hundred responses to two public consultation exercises on the changes since last autumn, the council has unveiled a series of measures it says will ease the impacts of the changes.

The authority said the most notable areas of concern had been around planned the changes to school nursing and audio-visual screening and potential impacts on safeguarding.

As part of a revised ten-year agreement, the council has agreed to fund a safeguarding practitioner post to provide advice to NHS staff and nursing advice to schools.

In addition, it has now been proposed that health visitors continue to assess children’s sight and hearing as part of the mandated health and wellbeing reviews in children aged up to five, and will refer families where issues are identified to their GP. Where school staff are concerned about a child’s hearing or vision they will be told to advise parents on how to access high street audiology and opticians, which are available free of charge.

Work is ongoing to address concerns raised in the consultations that a reduced offer on sexual health would lead to increased rates of teenage pregnancy, STIs and risk-taking behaviour. The additional cost of the school nursing and safeguarding measures could cost the council up to £253,000.

A council spokesman said to ensure the effective and value for money delivery of the mandated services, its director of public health would undertake an annual review.

County council ‘optimistic’ over redeeming Brierley Group losses

Leading figures at North Yorkshire County Council, which launched numerous loss-making commercial ventures, have spoken of their optimism of turning things round.

The council’s Brierley Group firms made collective losses of £639,000 last year.

Gary Fielding, corporate director at the council, said the losses experienced by its firms, such as housebuilders Brierley Homes, needed addressing after he was repeatedly challenged over the extent of the black hole.

A meeting of the authority’s shareholder committee heard the group was not “a money pit” at which taxpayers’ money was being thrown without being properly accounted for.

Officers and executive members gave a range of explanations as to why the group of firms, which includes ones offering auditing, waste and legal services, had gone into the red.

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Members were told the covid pandemic had been “tremendously difficult” for the schools’ catering firm, as kitchens had been kept open for the small number of pupils attending during lockdown.

Councillors heard the £639,000 loss over the last financial year was just a temporary position as some of the council’s firms worked on long-term ventures, such as housebuilding.

‘Hold our nerve’

Officers added the authority would be able to offset its tax position at a group level, utilising the losses of some of its ventures against its profitable ones, to be as tax efficient as possible.

Mr Fielding highlighted that some of the council’s firms had accumulated profits over several years.

He said:

“This is part of the rhythm of commercial activity. You don’t always have positive years and this has been an exceptional year. I think we just need to hold our nerve and look at that in the broader perspective.”

However, Cllr Mike Jordan, a Conservative representing South Selby, replied:

“A loss is a loss and at the end of the day we started these companies not just to provide a service, but to offset having to raise council tax. That’s one of the things we’re trying to do which we’re not going to do.”

Mr Fielding responded:

“If we weren’t worried about losing money that would not be natural and we would be accused of being complacent.”

The council’s finance executive member Cllr Gareth Dadd then said alongside aiming to limit council tax rises, the ventures were set up to provide services.

The meeting heard the council had calculated that the firms had generated £5.2 million of shareholder value in 2020/21.

The council’s chief executive Richard Flinton said the diversity of the group had helped the authority into a better position than the one many other councils were facing.

He said some of the firms were providing unique services for the county. Without the broadband firm NYNet, the meeting heard, many people in North Yorkshire would not have received superfast broadband.

Mr Flinton said Brierley Homes was “a potential disrupter to the market” as it would be more prepared to move forward with developments faster than some major building firms, responding to the need for homes.

North Yorkshire’s covid vaccine ‘success’ to be examined

Public health bosses are to examine why North Yorkshire’s covid vaccine uptake is significantly above the national average.

They will use the findings to tackle concerns over declining uptake of other jabs, such as MMR and meningitis.

North Yorkshire County Council‘s director of public health Louise Wallace told a meeting of the council’s executive one focus would be on whether transport and the location of vaccination centres had made it easy for residents to access Pfizer and Astra-Zeneca vaccines used in the county.

She was speaking just two days after the authority announced it would close vaccination sites at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground and Ripon Racecourse in August, saying mobile vaccination units would help to target areas reporting a sudden surge in covid cases.

A report to the meeting stated some 64.98% of the county’s population, excluding children, have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine, compared to the average rate across England of 53.38%.

The council and the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum have been providing logistical support around venues, transportation, volunteers and waste disposal for the vaccination programme, which is being overseen by the multi-agency North Yorkshire and York Vaccination Assurance Group, chaired by Ms Wallace.

The group aims to identify where there may be low levels in vaccine uptake and implement interventions to ensure equity in the vaccination rollout across North Yorkshire and York.

After hearing of the relatively high rate of covid vaccine uptake in the county,  the council’s Scrutiny of Health Committee chairman Councillor John Ennis asked whether officials would use the lessons learned as a springboard to tackle recognised low take-up rates of other vaccinations in the county, such as MMR.

The latest NHS digital figures, which were published in September 2019, show while coverage had continued to decline in all routine vaccinations across the country, North Yorkshire had a lower uptake than a number of its neighbours.

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The county’s vaccination uptake rate for the two-dose MMR vaccine stood at 89% compared to 96% in County Durham and close to 95% in areas such as north Lincolnshire and Barnsley.

Medics have warned falling childhood immunisation rates risk a resurgence of deadly and life-changing diseases of the past. Public health experts have advised successful vaccination programmes need a “system-wide approach” saying services had become “fragmented” since changes were made to public health commissioning in 2012.

While Ms Wallace’s predecessor last year warned the county’s public health services were facing difficult choices due to cuts in Government funding, she told the meeting she would be prioritising vaccination programmes.

She said the authority had used its experiences from previous vaccination programmes, such as flu and MMR, to maximise coverage with the covid vaccine.

Ms Wallace said:

“We will be taking some of the lessons that we’ve learnt and looking at why this vaccination programme has got quite a high uptake overall

“We have got quite a lot of learning as to why people bought into this and we will be looking at why some people have vaccine hesitancy and try and myth-bust.”

County council’s trading company records £639,000 loss

North Yorkshire County Council’s trading arm, The Brierley Group, recorded a loss of £639,000 last year.

The council has created numerous companies to generate funding for frontline services.

The authority’s leader and deputy leader, Councillors Carl Les and Gareth Dadd, defended the strategy ahead of the council’s first meeting to discuss the group’s performance during the first year of the pandemic.

An officers’ report to the meeting said the ventures, to which the council has committed to loaning some £54 million at preferential rates, had seen a continued “mixed performance” from the previous year.

Provisional figures show the group, which includes education and business services, housebuilding, internet, legal and waste enterprises, delivered a loss after tax for the 2020/21 financial year of £639,000.

The report stated the total revenue generated of £59.9 million was under budget by £4.8 million.

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Officers said North Yorkshire Education Services faced unique challenges throughout the year, and that the pandemic had an adverse impact on the school catering business due to school closures.

While First North Law’s trading in the first half of the year resulted in a £14,000 underperformance, officers said broadband provider NYnet experienced some challenging trading conditions throughout 2020-21, particularly with regard to new customer sales.

The report states waste management company Yorwaste performed well during the last quarter despite trading continuing to be difficult and the business services Veritau group exceeded its budgeted profit for the year.

Cllr Les said:

“The pandemic has had an impact across not only the council, but the council-owned companies and we are looking at the business plan for the future post-pandemic.”

He said he was optimistic about the firms staging a recovery this year, providing covid variants did not have a major impact on the county.

Cllr Dadd, who is also the council’s finance executive member, said he was proud of what the authority had achieved with its commercialisation agenda.

He said:

“It’s been done in a cautious manner, but nonetheless has provided and post-pandemic will provide vital resources to the county council’s budget on behalf of the taxpayer.

“We are not risking millions and millions like other authorities, which are buying shopping centres. We are taking a cautious, level-headed, reasonable approach to this and any extra funds goes into support services, especially for vulnerable people, and that’s why we’re keen to pursue it.”

He added the authority had a better chance of getting a variety of work done than many if not all other councils because it was the firms’ shareholders, so they had to perform for the authority.

Cllr Dadd said:

“Their focus is entirely on service delivery to make profit or reach what the residents of North Yorkshire expect. It’s had a positive effect on service delivery.”

Deer Shed festival outlines social distancing measures

One of the country’s leading family-oriented festivals has outlined some of the public health measures it will introduce to ensure safety at this year’s revamped event.

The annual Deer Shed Festival was cancelled because of problems securing covid cancellation insurance.

Instead, organisers have created Deer Shed: Base Camp Plus, which is a smaller camping festival from July 30 and August 1 at Baldersby, on the edge of the Harrogate district.

Ahead of tickets going on sale tomorrow, its director Oliver Jones said it would be run on a socially-distanced basis, rather than testing attendees, to maintain as much of the festival’s distinctiveness as possible.

Even though the event doesn’t take place until the end of July, it has been designed to meet step three restrictions in the government’s roadmap, which came into force this week.

Mr Jones, who runs the festival on 90 acres of parkland, said the decision had meant it could feature the likes of comedians John Shuttleworth, Mark Watson, and Flo and Joan as well as female-fronted music headliners Jane Weaver, Dream Wife and Porridge Radio.

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While recent runnings of the festival have seen about 10,000 people attending, organisers say as a result of social distancing requirements there would be fewer than 4,000 festival-goers at this year’s Base Camp Plus event.

Those attending will need to wear masks in covered areas and the event will feature table bar service.

Among measures festival organisers will introduce to meet public health tests, being led by North Yorkshire County Council, include that each of the 850 camping pitches will have a toilet alongside.

Mr Jones said:

“It’s going to look mad with a lot of toilets dotted around the place. We want to make it as bullet-proof in this current environment as we can because there will be more festival cancellations and anyone who thinks the festival summer season is on is fairly deluded.

“The unlocking timetable took the festival industry by surprise, but for Boris to say there’s an end to restrictions is very much not true. Large events are not going to be back to normal.”

A spokesman for the council said all such events would be reviewed by the local safety advisory group, which would consider if the event organiser was ensuring all mitigations were in place to protect the public.

Checks for the festival will include that it can demonstrate safe and effective management of crowd density, how queues can be managed effectively, its ability to ensure the use of face coverings and enhanced cleaning, hand washing and hygiene procedures. For details, visit deershedfestival.com/basecampplus.