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Jun 2022
Harrogate district's leisure and housing companies ‘will transfer’ to North Yorkshire Council
Harrogate Borough Council has confirmed its leisure and housing companies will be transferred to the new North Yorkshire Council, but questions remain over what will happen thereafter.
Brimhams Active and Bracewell Homes were launched in the last three years with the backing of just under £11 million from taxpayers.
The borough council said in a statement this week that “there are no plans to change how they’re currently run, albeit they will transfer” when the authority is abolished next April.
This comes as council officers from across North Yorkshire are working together on county-wide plans for how all services will work when they come under the control of the new North Yorkshire Council.
Currently, housing and leisure services across the seven districts are run in different ways through arm's-length companies, management firms, charity trusts and by the local councils themselves.
Councillor Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said the correct decision-making process would be followed for the future of services and that he would not be drawn on whether it would be better to scrap the current set-ups.
He said:
Brimhams Active launched last August when it took over control of leisure centres and swimming pools in Harrogate, Starbeck, Ripon, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge.
'New vision'
Harrogate Borough Council hailed the move as a “new vision for the future” of services and said it would save around £400,000 a year through business rates relief and VAT benefits.
Councillor Pat Marsh, leader of the council’s opposition Liberal Democrat group and Brimhams Active board member, said the company has so far been a success despite challenges with covid closures and staffing shortages:
However, Cllr Marsh was less praiseworthy of Bracewell Homes which launched in 2019 with the aims of turning the council a profit and delivering much-needed affordable homes.
She said:
Read more:
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Confirming both companies will be transferred to the new council, a Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said:
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