Could Harrogate be the home of the new North Yorkshire Council?

As the formation North Yorkshire Council edges closer, questions have been raised over where the new authority should be based.

From April 2023, North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate Borough Council and the six other district authorities will be abolished and replaced with a new council.

A decision has yet to be made on where the new North Yorkshire Council will be based.

North Yorkshire County Council is based at County Hall in Northallerton, which is the hot favourite to be home to the new unitary authority.

But Harrogate’s modern Civic Centre has been suggested as an alternative. Cllr Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, told a Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce meeting this month that Harrogate’s Knapping Mount had a case.

He said:

“It’s still not decided where the new council will be and it could be Harrogate. It would certainly have the best office facilities in North Yorkshire.”

No decision will be made on the location until after the May local government elections. So what are Harrogate’s prospects and what is at stake?

Harrogate or Northallerton?

The location of the new authority will be one of the key decisions that councillors make in the coming 12 months.

Ninety councillors will be elected to North Yorkshire Council, covering 650,000 residents and 32,000 businesses across England’s largest county.

The location of the new council matters because most key decisions will be made there.

Across North Yorkshire, Harrogate is the highest populated town with 75,070 people. The town itself is one of the two main urban areas in the county, along with Scarborough, and benefits from transport links, a vibrant hospitality sector and various public facilities.

North Yorkshire County Council offices in Northallerton.

It also has a modern council facility. The Knapping Mount headquarters, which staff moved into in July 2020, is purpose-built for local government. It is designed to accommodate 500 staff.

The council said the building cost £13 million. However, the Stray Ferret investigated the overall cost of the move from Crescent Gardens and put the figure closer to £17 million.

County Hall in Northallerton was built in 1906 and has served as the headquarters of various local governments in North Yorkshire, including North Riding County Council up until 1974.

The grade II listed building underwent a £500,000 refurbishment in 1999.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council. Picture: NYCC.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council. Picture: NYCC.

Conservative Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, told the Stray Ferret that it would make sense for the new council to remain at county hall.

However, he added that the authority does plan to implement local office space for staff and a “double devolution” agenda for local decision making.

He said:

“It will be for the new council to decide. But there is a lot of jobs in Northallerton.

“It would not make sense to move from Northallerton.”

The sentiment is echoed by Liberal Democrat Cllr Philip Broadbank, who represents Starbeck on the county council. He said:

“There is a high chance it would in Northallerton because it is more central.

“The Harrogate council has been mentioned, but it needs to be central.”

But for Independent Cllr Stuart Parsons, the future needs to be based around regional decision making.

Cllr Parsons, who represents Richmond on the county council, said the council needed to be “trimmed” and decision-making should be spread around the county.

He said:

“I suspect they [the council[ see themselves where they are. But no one has thought to ask if that is sensible.”

Why does the council’s location matter?

Much of the criticism over the new council is that it is too remote.

The county is scattered in terms of populations, with an estimated 160,830 people in the Harrogate district compared to 55,380 in Ryedale.

Having such a large county makes the headquarter issue even more important.

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For example, if a planning decision relates to Starbeck the issues are more likely to be understood by council officers based in Harrogate than in Northallerton

Cllr Parsons said there needed to be a plan for how “double devolution”, which would give powers to local areas, is distributed.

“There needs to be a short, medium and long-term plan. We are nowhere near that.”

What happens now?

County council leaders have said a decision on where the new council will be based will not be made until after the May elections.

Currently, an implementation board made up of senior council officers and an implementation executive, which includes cabinet members from across the county, is working through proposals.

Once the new councillors are elected, decisions will be made on matters such as location, planning, senior management committees ahead of North Yorkshire Council coming into operation in April 2023.

May 5 date set for first North Yorkshire Council elections

Elections will take place on May 5 to elect councillors to the new North Yorkshire Council.

The current two-tier system, where North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council provide different services locally, will be replaced by a single-tier system with one council in charge of England’s largest county.

A Structural Changes Order laid before Parliament, which paves the way for the elections, has confirmed the new council will be called North Yorkshire Council.

Councillors elected in May will serve on North Yorkshire County Council until April 1 2023 when they will move over to the new council.

Existing Harrogate borough councillors will remain in place until North Yorkshire Council is created.

There will be 90 new councillors in North Yorkshire Council, representing 89 divisions.

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Conservative Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council said:

“This is an exciting moment for North Yorkshire and one which I hope people will look back on in the future as a game-changer for the county’s economic fortunes. The new single council will give our county a much stronger voice regionally and nationally and allows us to bring together the very best of all eight councils to build the best possible new one.

“These are very important elections, because the councillors voted in this May will serve the final year of the county council and then they will be the voice of the people for the first four years of the new single council.”

Background to the shake-up

The government announced on July 21, 2021 there would be a new single council for North Yorkshire.

The first day of the new North Yorkshire Council will be 1 April 2023.

On the first day of the new council, the current North Yorkshire County Council, the borough councils of Harrogate and Scarborough and the district councils serving Craven, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale and Selby will cease to exist.

Until then all eight councils in the county will continue to run their own services and make their own decisions, while working together on the change programme.

County council faces using up to £11m of reserves to balance books

North Yorkshire County Council could dip into its reserves to balance its books in the next financial year.

Ahead of a budget meeting next week, senior county councillors have warned that the council may have to use up to £11 million of its reserves — despite hiking council tax rate.

The authority currently has £271 million in reserves, much of which is earmarked for capital projects and other costs, such as £31 million to fund the transition to the upcoming new unitary authority North Yorkshire Council.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of the county council, said the authority still faced risks over the ongoing impact of covid and social care.

He said:

“We are facing an unprecedented range of risks – the continuing impact of covid, harsh winters and climate change, the need for interventions to prop up social care, the escalating costs of transport for special educational needs students, to name but a few.

“These pressures are such that given the need to continue to deliver key services at a time of rising demand and the need to successfully transition to a new council, our final budget will require a higher degree of support from reserves than would otherwise be the case or is desirable.”

County councillors will meet next week to decide whether to support proposals for its budget for 2022/23.

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Among the plans will be an increase in council tax. The county council has the power to hike its rate by as much as 4.5%.

Depending on the level of council tax set, the county council will have to use between £6 million and £11 million of its reserves.

The authority has also warned it will still face a black hole of at least £30 million in three years, even if it levies the maximum permitted council tax rise this year.

Cllr Gareth Dadd, deputy leader and executive member for finance, said: 

“These continue to be turbulent times. We are responding to increased pressures that the pandemic has placed on our communities and the county’s economy.

“At the same time, long-term challenges grow, for example the massive pressures in social care. This means we face further tough choices as we budget for the future.”

Council warns of ‘enormous financial pressures’ despite government funding

North Yorkshire County Council officials have warned that it faces “enormous financial pressures” despite receiving £10 million in additional funding from government.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, announced that the authority will be granted £26 million in grants for the coming year.

Council officials said the funding was more than forecast due to an increase in funding from the government.

The fund includes core spending grants and funding for adult social care.

However, county council bosses have warned that the authority will still have to find £19 million in savings.

The funding includes:

Ministers said the settlement reflected the extra pressures on local councils, particularly in social care and the covid pandemic.

But Cllr Gareth Dadd, executive county councillor for finance, said the money would already be “accounted for” at this “turbulent time”.

He said:

“The additional money is very welcome. However, this continues to be a turbulent time. We remain in the midst of the pandemic and are responding to the increased pressures this puts on the county’s communities and economy, as well as our own resources.

“At the same time, long-term challenges continue to grow, as we deal with massive pressures in the social care markets and unprecedented levels of inflation and national insurance contributions. This means that as welcome as the extra money is, it is already more than accounted for.”

The move comes as the county council is consulting residents in North Yorkshire on its upcoming budget.

The authority will have the means to be able to hike council tax by up to 4.5% this year, under government rules.

Those in a band D property in North Yorkshire currently pay £1,411.05 in the county council’s share of council tax.

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Cllr Carl Les, leader of the council, said reform was needed on funding for rural authorities as residents “already pay too much council tax”.

He said:

“Putting up council tax is never an easy option for this authority. We have always striven to be moderate in our increases.

“In considering the level of council tax, we must understand and balance the hardship families are currently facing and the added pressure a council tax increase may bring with the need to fund essential services to support the most vulnerable in our communities through this critical period.

“We continue to feel that residents in North Yorkshire pay too much council tax, particularly in comparison to London, and urge the Government to press on with funding reform to create a fairer solution for rural counties.”

The county council is expected to outline its budget plan, including council tax, in the new year.

County council leader ‘wants to be a friend of parish councils’

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.”

County councillors back 1.75% allowance increase

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.”

County council leader backs National Insurance hike to fund social care

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has backed the government’s manifesto-breaking move to raise National Insurance to tackle NHS covid backlogs and reform the social care system.

Conservative Cllr Carl Les said the plan, which also includes capping care costs at £86,000, provided assurances that families won’t lose massive amounts of money due to relatives needing care and also showed the government was willing to tackle deep-rooted issues in the sectors.

However, some critics have said the plan, which would see National Insurance rise by 1.25%, does not go far enough. Social care leaders warned the money raised will be “too little, too late” as they struggle with staff shortages and surging demand for people needing care.

Cllr Les said: 

“We welcome the publication of the plan and I’m pleased that the government is tackling this issue.

“The measures announced will start to address the issue of uncertainty around care costs for individuals and families.

“However, we need to see more detailed proposals about the government’s plans for stabilising care provision and investing in the workforce.

“Adult social care is vitally important to our residents and to the council.

“The service accounts for nearly 50% of our budget, and we need to support the sector while it works through its numerous challenges.”

Announcing the plan on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the tax rise would raise £36 billion for the NHS and social care in the next three years, but accepted it broke a manifesto promise.

He described the plan as “reasonable and fair” and said the majority of the funds would go towards increasing hospital capacity to catch up on backlogs created by covid.

Some of the money – £5.4 billion over the next three years – will also go towards changes to the social care system.

But there has been anger from some care leaders who say more immediate support is needed to address the current crisis in the sector.

“Too little, too late”

Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, which represents independent care providers in North Yorkshire and York, said the plan failed to address the staffing situation and was a “huge opportunity missed for radical, once-in-a-generation reform of the social care system”.

He also said the amount promised “isn’t going to touch the crisis in the sector and will certainly not address the 120,000 vacancies in staffing, which is sending the sector into meltdown on a daily basis as care providers struggle to cover shifts.”

Mr Padgham said: 

“It will not fund the proper recruitment and training of the thousands of staff we need, nor will it allow the sector to properly reward those staff who have played such a vital, life-saving role during Covid-19.

“It is too little and, it looks like being, too late.”

The new tax will begin as a rise in National Insurance from next April, paid by both employers and workers, and will then become a separate tax on earned income from 2023.

It will cost an extra £130 a year for someone earning £20,000, £505 more for someone on £50,000, and £1,130 extra for someone earning £100,000, the government said.

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Under the plans to fix social care, people will no longer pay more than £86,000 in care costs – not including food and accommodation – over their lifetime, from October 2023.

Once people have reached this cap, ongoing costs for personal care will be paid for by local councils.

£1,055 a week for Harrogate district care homes

In North Yorkshire, the Harrogate district is the most expensive area to get care for loved ones with the average weekly cost of residential care this year reaching £1,055 and the same figure for nursing climbing to £1,061.

Over a one-year period, this can equate to more than £55,000.

The government’s announcement to cap these costs comes at a time when the social care sector is in the midst of a staffing crisis and battling with a long backlog of people needing to be assessed for care.

Richard Webb, director of health and adult services at the county council, last month said the sector was facing “unrelenting” pressures and that it had reached “tipping point” with a 70 per cent drop in applications for the around 1,000 jobs currently vacant.

He said the NHS had also not escaped the staffing problems which existed before the pandemic but have only been exacerbated by the virus outbreak.

The staffing situation looks set to worsen when compulsory vaccines for care workers come into force on November 11.

From this date, it will become a legal requirement for all staff working in care homes to be fully vaccinated against covid – unless they are exempt – in order to protect the elderly and vulnerable residents most at risk from the virus.

In North Yorkshire, it has been estimated that around 500 workers could be forced out of their jobs because of this unless more staff come forward for their vaccines.

Announcing the tax hike on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

“No Conservative government wants to raise taxes, but nor could we in good conscience meet the cost of this plan simply by borrowing the money.

“This new levy will break our manifesto commitment, but a global pandemic wasn’t in our manifesto either.

“After everything we’ve spent to protect people through that crisis, we cannot now shirk the challenge of putting the NHS back on its feet, which requires fixing the problem of social care, and investing the money needed.”

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.

 

Devolution will ‘offer residents everywhere a fairer future’, says county council leader

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council has said the forthcoming major shake-up of local government in the county brings the chance to “improve lives and offer residents everywhere a fairer future”.

Writing in an open letter after the government announced it would grant control of all council services to a new unitary authority covering the whole of the county in 2023, Cllr Carl Les said:

“In North Yorkshire we are famous for our straight talking so I want to be clear on what an opportunity we have before us.

“Government has given the green light for a new single council, which will deliver all local services to every household in the county from spring 2023. Not in itself perhaps the most exciting line on earth – but the benefits this approach will bring are real and must not be underestimated.”

Under the reorganisation plans, North Yorkshire’s county and district councils – including Harrogate – are to be scrapped and replaced by the new unitary authority.

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City of York Council will remain separate but all others will be fused together under the new structure covering a population of 618,000.

Cllr Les added:

“Put simply, that’s eight councils, with a wealth of dedicated and skilled staff between them, coming together to form one focused workforce, joining up all those services that will make life easier for everyone.

“Aligning things like planning, broadband, highways and housing to build stronger communities. Joining up job opportunities with education and skills. Support for families with health, leisure and cultural offers.

“The chance to enrich and improve the lives of very many people here and offer residents everywhere a fairer future. It will also save tens of millions that can be ploughed back into strengthening public services and empowering communities to drive and deliver on what matters most to them.”

The single council structure was proposed by North Yorkshire County Council, while the district councils except Hambleton, which rejected all options on the table, submitted a bid for two authorities split on a east/west basis.

Speaking after the government last month announced its backing of the county council proposal, Cllr Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, said the decision “flew in the face of the government’s own criteria”.

He said: 

“My argument has always been that any unitary for our area needs to be of the right size and structure to deliver efficient and responsive services to residents.

“The county council deliver some services exceptionally – children’s services and adult social care to name two. In other areas they let our borough down.

“My job now as the leader of Harrogate Borough Council is to explore how the new unitary authority, based on the county structure, can improve these shortcomings.”

The aim of reorganisation is to save money and unlock the door to a devolution deal which could see millions of pounds and decision-making powers handed down from government to North Yorkshire under the control of a new mayor.

Cllr Les added this presented an opportunity for the county to fulfil its role as a “rural powerhouse” as he also urged leaders and residents to work together towards this aim.

He said: 

“Whatever your view on the timing of, detail or context for big changes to how services are future proofed here, please come together as one to help deliver the very best for every single person in the county.

“Team North Yorkshire is resilient, caring and focused. Let’s show the nation what we can do.”

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.