New signs consign Harrogate Borough Council to history

New signs have appeared at Knapping Mount in Harrogate to mark this month’s momentous change in local government.

Harrogate Borough Council was abolished at the end of last month and replaced by North Yorkshire Council.

North Yorkshire Council also replaced six other district councils and North Yorkshire County Council to become the unitary local authority in the county.

Signs marking the change have gone up at the Civic Centre at Knapping Mount in Harrogate.

The Civic Centre used to be the centre of local government in the Harrogate district but it now one of many offices controlled by North Yorkshire Council, whose headquarters are at County Hall in Northallerton.

North Yorkshire Council knapping mount civic centre

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Ripon council could take control of city’s key assets in 12 months’ time

There are hopes Ripon City Council could be running Ripon’s town hall and market place by April next year, according to the council leader.

The council submitted an expression of interest at the end of last month to North Yorkshire Council to be part of a “double devolution” pilot scheme that would see it take control of some of the city’s key assets.

These were previously owned by the abolished Harrogate Borough Council before being handed to the new unitary council on April 1.

If successful, council leader Andrew Williams, who also sits on the North Yorkshire Council as an independent, says the pilot scheme in Ripon could be up and running in time for the next financial year in April 2024.

North Yorkshire Council will choose six pilot schemes from across the county after considering each expression of interest.

Cllr Williams told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he believes Ripon’s bid is one of the most ambitious submitted to the council and they have a “proven track record” of delivering services after previously taking over the lease of Hugh Ripley Hall from HBC.

He said the city council would commit to refurbishing and repurposing the town hall, which he said had been neglected by the old Harrogate-based authority.

“Quite clearly there’s been no investment in the building for years. It hasn’t been painted in 20 years and vast areas are laying idle so there may be a mix of things could be done.

“It’s a blank canvas but we think it could be used to generate economic activity in Ripon. It could be used as a museum to display Ripon’s historical artificats and I’d like to see North Yorkshire Council use it as a customer service point for residents.

“Part of the building could also be converted into rentable office space. Something needs to be done but we know there’s plenty of potential.”

Cllr Williams also said the city council would look to tidy up the market place and could use surplus revenue from car parking charges towards the refurbishment of the town hall.

Improvements to city centre public toiliets, which also formed part of the council’s expression of interest, would also make the city more appealing to tourists and businesses, he added.

“There’s grass growing out of the market square, such as been the poor maintenance of it.

“We believe collectively as a city council that we can draw more visitors to Ripon and bring businesses to the city centre. If the city looks smart and going places people are more likely to spend money here.”

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Harrogate Borough Council to be abolished today

Harrogate Borough Council will be abolished at the end of today after 49 years of existence.

The council, along with six other district councils and North Yorkshire County Council, will be replaced by North Yorkshire Council from April 1.

The move comes as part of the biggest shake-up in local government since 1974.

It means North Yorkshire Council, which will employ 11,500 staff, will be responsible for all council services in the district, including bin collections, planning, licensing and highways.

The change will also see the district represented by 16 councillors, instead of the current 40 on the borough council plus more on the county council.

Among those councillors stepping down are Richard Cooper and Graham Swift, the leader and deputy leader of Harrogate Borough Council respectively.

‘We will be locally-based’

The new leaders of the unitary council have pledged the new authority will be local, despite being based in Northallerton.

Speaking ahead of the takeover, Richard Flinton, the new chief executive of the council, defended the authority from criticism that it was too remote.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:

“We will have locally-based managers who have a strong understanding of the issues in their areas.”

The authority’s leadership says while one safeguard against parochialism on the new authority would be in its executive members representing communities from across the county, another is by retaining its headquarters in Northallerton.

Richard Flinton, chief executive of North Yorkshire Council.

Richard Flinton, chief executive of North Yorkshire Council.

Mr Flinton said: 

“If our headquarters was in Harrogate or Scarborough then there might be more of a concern that we would be focused on that as the council view of the world. 

“Being in a fairly modest market town mitigates against that.”

Meanwhile, Cllr Carl Les, the Conservative leader of the new council, defended the decision to create 90 councillors to cover the entire county – rather than the current number of 319 which cover different councils.

He said:

“Representation by numbers doesn’t work. What matters is if you’ve got energetic people in the cohort of 90. The great benefit of reducing from 319 is that we have saved £750,000.

“I think we’ve got enough members to represent the people and continue the political process. You don’t have to go to a parish meeting to understand what’s happening in that parish.”

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Explained: What happens to leisure centres when Harrogate council is scrapped?

A new council is set to take over in the Harrogate district next week.

Both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council will make way for North Yorkshire Council on April 1.

Brimhams Active, an arms length company owned by Harrogate Borough Council, currently runs leisure services in the district.

In this article, we explain what will happen to leisure facilities under the new North Yorkshire Council.

Who currently runs leisure facilities in the district?

Currently, Brimhams Active operates leisure facilities in the Harrogate district.

The company was set up in August 2020 to run swimming pools and leisure centres.

This includes Harrogate Hydro, Knaresborough Pool, Starbeck Baths and the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon.

Brimhams Active has also overseen major projects, such as the redevelopment of the Harrogate Hydro swimming pool and the construction of new facilities in Ripon and Knaresborough.

What will happen under the new council?

As of April 1, Brimhams Active will transfer over to North Yorkshire Council.

The new council will add Selby’s leisure services to the Brimhams Active portfolio from September 2024.

North Yorkshire Council will also undertake a £120,000 review of leisure services with the aim of creating a countywide model for delivering leisure and sport by 2027.

While people who use the centres may not see an immediate change, the ownership of the company will be different.

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Explained: What happens to Harrogate taxis after devolution?

A new council is set to take over in the Harrogate district in three weeks’ time.

Both Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council will make way for North Yorkshire Council on April 1.

Under the new council, how taxi drivers operate and how they are licensed will change.

In this article, we will explain how taxis are currently licensed and what will change from April this year.

Who currently licences taxis?

Currently, Harrogate Borough Council licences taxi drivers within the district.

Those drivers who wish to operate a taxi in the borough must be licensed by the council.

Once they have a licence, they can drive their vehicle and operate anywhere in the district.

Similarly, the borough council is responsible for licensing wheelchair accessible cabs.

Who sets the fares?

As well as issuing licences, the borough council also sets the fares and fees for drivers.

The council reviews fares for taxis annually.

What will happen from April?

From April, the new North Yorkshire Council will implement a single taxi zone across the county.

The existing seven district councils, including Harrogate, currently have their own hackney carriage and private hire licensing policies. 

However, under the new policy, drivers will be able to operate in any area of North Yorkshire.

The plan has proved controversial with local cabbies, who described it as a “disaster”.

They argue that the move would lead to taxis crowding out busier areas and leave rural communities without a service.

What about fares?

The council is currently considering how to set fares for taxis under its single zone policy.

A proposal over fares for North Yorkshire cabs is expected to go before councillors on Tuesday (March 21).

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Zoë Metcalfe confirms bid to become North Yorkshire’s first mayor

Zoë Metcalfe has confirmed she wants to stand as the Conservative candidate in next year’s York and North Yorkshire mayoral election.

Ms Metcalfe, who lives near Boroughbridge, is the current North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

The Stray Ferret reported on Saturday that she was believed to be planning a bid for election.

Ms Metcalfe is the first person to formally declare an intention to stand for the role of mayor, which is being created as part of the North Yorkshire devolution process. The election will be held in 14 months’ time.

The mayor will oversee a significant budget for York and North Yorkshire covering areas such as transport, education and housing.

He or she will also swallow up the commissioner’s role currently occupied by Ms Metcalfe, who was born in Ripon, educated in Harrogate and lives in Aldborough.

Zoe Metcalfe

Speaking to the media

In a statement issued last night, she said she was “uniquely qualified” for the role and had the “necessary business experience and close links to Westminster to promote economic growth”,

Ms Metcalfe is a former Harrogate borough councillor who was elected to the commissioner’s role in 2021 following the resignation of fellow Conservative Philip Allott.

Since taking up the role on a salary of £74,000, she has overseen the introduction of a Risk and Resource Model for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, which sets out how resources will be deployed from 2022 to 2025.

The changes included reducing Harrogate Fire Station’s nighttime cover from two fire engines to one.

‘Close links to Westminster’

Ms Metcalfe’s statement in full said:

“This is a really exciting role that I am uniquely qualified to do.

“The mayor will have responsibility for economic growth, transport, housing and regeneration, but will also see the integration of the responsibilities and decision making of my current role as Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner within it too.

“There is a rich synergy between creating safer streets and economic growth, two areas that I am passionate about.

“I have the necessary business experience and close links to Westminster to promote economic growth. I will also continue the great work I have started in turning around community safety in York and North Yorkshire and I will see through the transformation of both the police force and fire and rescue service.

“I have always been a supporter of devolution as it will bring many exciting opportunities for York and North Yorkshire, it will be a great platform to enable and enrich the lives of our residents and businesses bringing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment into our region”.

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Harrogate councillors approve transfer of council-owned companies

Councillors have approved the transfer of Harrogate Borough Council’s wholly-owned companies to the new North Yorkshire Council next month.

HBC’s Conservative-run cabinet met last night at the Civic Centre to discuss a report written by the council’s head of legal and governance, Jennifer Norton.

The report recommends that leisure company Brimhams Active and housing company Bracewell Homes are passed over to the new council on April 1.

Harrogate Borough Council will be abolished on March 31 after being in existence since 1974.

The next day, a new unitary council for the whole of North Yorkshire will be created to deliver all the services currently delivered by Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council.

Wholly-owned companies

Brimhams Active launched in August 2020 when it took over control of leisure centres and swimming pools in Harrogate, Starbeck, Ripon, Knaresborough and Pateley Bridge.

It has overseen major projects such as the redevelopment of the Harrogate Hydro swimming pool and the construction of new facilities in Ripon and Knaresborough.

The new council will add Selby’s leisure services to the Brimhams Active portfolio from September 2024.

This will be whilst it undertakes a £120,000 review of leisure services with the aim of creating a countywide model for delivering leisure and sport by 2027.

Bracewell Homes was set up in 2019 with the aim of turning the council a profit and delivering affordable homes.

It is expecting to deliver 43 homes by the end of 2023/24, which will exceed its target of 40 homes by 2024.

North Yorkshire County Council already has a housing company called Brierley Homes and what will happen to Bracewell inside the new authority is unclear.

‘They’ve done very well for Harrogate’

At last night’s meeting, Conservative council leader Richard Cooper said the two companies have done “very well” for the soon-to-be abolished authority. He said:

“This to me seems very much like a tidying-up exercise, things that we need to do, belt and braces, in order to make sure that the transfer of borough council-owned companies transfers smoothly to the new North Yorkshire Council.

“I hope they will look after them because they’ve done very well for Harrogate Borough Council thanks to the expertise of the officers who have been guiding them.”

Cabinet members Sam Gibbs and Stan Lumley did not take part in the discussion or vote as they sit on the Brimhams Active board.

Councillors brand North Yorkshire devolution deal ‘York-centric’

Councils have pushed forward a move to transfer some central government powers to York and North Yorkshire, despite cross-party concerns York’s residents will gain more than the county’s.

Less than 24 hours after City of York Council gave its seal of approval to sending the results of a public consultation over a proposed devolution deal for the city and North Yorkshire, the majority of councillors on its Northallerton-based counterpart followed suit.

While the deal seeks to fuse the futures of the two councils, numerous North Yorkshire councillors underlined their view that York’s 200,000 residents would be the winners in a mayoral combined authority with just two councillors from each authority.

During a lengthy debate on the devolution deal during a full meeting of North Yorkshire County Council, numerous councillors attacked proposals to hand a disproportionate amount of power to York.

Many councillors agreed that the deal was far from perfect, but there was little option than to agree to it if the area wanted extra money from the government.

The authority’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said the deal on the table was “just the start” of negotiations with the government to hand more decision-making powers and funds directly to the area.

He said: 

“We have got to move on. The past is the past, this is the future. This is how government prefers to work. And if we negate that we are going to lose out yet again.”

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Les said the deal would help avoid bidding wars, by moving decision-making out of Whitehall to York and Northallerton, there would also be safeguards in place on the mayoral combined authority to protect the interests of both councils’ populations.

However, opposition councillors said the deal would lead to decision-making becoming more concentrated in a small group of unelected people on the combined authority.

Green group leader Cllr Andy Brown said the authority was being offered “crumbs not substance” following decades of the government stripping back funding for County Hall, so the deal was “more propaganda than reality”.

Cllr Stuart Parsons, Independents group leader, said of the £18m extra annual government funding the deal would bring, up to £4m would be spent on staffing the mayor’s office.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths said the mayor’s office would be “yet another layer of bureaucracy to be funded by the poor taxpayers”.

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Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said devolution would happen whether people in North Yorkshire wanted it or not, while Craven District Council leader Richard Foster said branded the deal was “York-centric”.

Ripon Cllr Andrew Williams said York was a “basket case of a council that the poor residents in York have to suffer” and that many people in York would like to see it abolished and being a part of a wider North Yorkshire.

He told the meeting: 

“It is a local authority, quite frankly, which fails the people of York every day it opens its doors for business.”

Seamer division member Cllr Heather Phillips was among few councillors who expressed any solidarity with York.

She said: 

“York, we welcome you. We want to work with you and we’ll be a better North Yorkshire when we do that.”

Double devolution could be ‘fundamental gamechanger’ for Knaresborough, says councillor

A Knaresborough councillor has said double devolution could be a “fundamental gamechanger” for the town.

It follows a meeting of Knaresborough Town Council this week where town councillors backed submitting an expression of interest to North Yorkshire County Council to become part of a pilot scheme that could eventually see the town council run Knaresborough’s Wednesday market.

Knaresborough has held a weekly market since 1310, which it claims makes it the longest continually-run market in the country.

It’s currently run by Harrogate Borough Council but that will all change from April 1 when control will be handed to the new North Yorkshire Council unitary authority.

If the expression of interest is successful, the town council would work with officers at North Yorkshire Council to develop a business case for potentially running the market.

This process would take around 12 months before a final decision is made by on whether Knaresborough is one of six pilot double devolution projects.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr David Goode said developing a business case would be an important experience to understand the processes, procedures and skills required to make double devolution bids.

He pointed to the example of Falmouth Town Council in Cornwall, which was not running any services 20 years ago but now employs 42 people and is a multi-million-pound operation.

He said:

“That’s the sort of massive change we’re looking at but it won’t happen overnight.”

Cllr Goode was keen to stress that if the town council were to ultimately run the market it would not necessarily mean an increase in its council tax precept.

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The North Yorkshire Council budget for the market would be transferred to the town council as part of a legal agreement. This would commit the council to maintaining at least the same level and standard of service currently delivered on a permanent basis.

If the town council wanted to make enhancements to the market, it may have to meet the associated costs, but Cllr Goode said it would ask Knaresborough residents for their opinion before any decision was made.

He believes that good consultation will crucial if double devolution is to be a success.

Cllr Goode said:

“I firmly believe that if there is an enhancement to the market, that needs to be a ground-up decision from the community and not at the whim of councillors.”

Opposition North Yorkshire councillors criticise ‘community networks’ plan

The leaders of opposition political groups on North Yorkshire County Council have criticised plans to fill the void left by the abolition of seven district councils by launching 30 unelected and unfunded “community networks”.

A series of concerns have been raised ahead of the council’s executive next Tuesday, which will consider establishing community networks to act as the “engine rooms” for social and economic change.

The leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Labour, Green and Independent groups, which collectively secured 59% of the votes at last May’s election, said both they and some members of the ruling Conservative group, which has a two-seat majority, had significant reservations over the move.

A statement issued by the council on Tuesday, said the networks, which it is hoped will include representatives of organisations, such as parish councils, police and the NHS, were being seen as “a hugely important element of the new North Yorkshire Council”, which will be launched on April 1.

It is hoped the networks will build on existing relationships and partnerships between the public, private and community and voluntary sectors, including the close working arrangements that were developed during the covid pandemic.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

The statement highlighted how the networks would include councillors and receive support from senior council officers, but would be independent of the new authority and be responsible for driving forward action plans centred on a specific area’s priorities.

County council leader, Cllr Carl Les, said: 

“While North Yorkshire Council will cover the largest geographical area of any local authority in the country, we are committed to being the most local too.

“The community networks will be invaluable to ensuring that the voices of communities across North Yorkshire are heard, and that local needs and priorities can be addressed.”

‘Don’t seem to make much sense’

Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said while the proposed organisations were “a start”, due to their lack of powers the networks would “end up like talking shops where people come and tub thump” and feature parishes with vastly different budgets and priorities.

He said: 

“They don’t seem to make much sense at the moment. My patch is so diverse, trying to get something that works for everybody is going to be difficult.”

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Cllr Andy Brown, leader of the Green group, said he did not understand how community networks would help and that there was a risk of confusion between the roles of parish and town councils, the county authority’s area constituency committees and the unitary council and mayoral combined authority.

He said: 

“I don’t understand when they were approved or how their geography was determined. My biggest concern is nobody consulted the local councillors about the geography of these networks.

“If you are going to have community networks they have to be communities.”

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons said the community networks would have “no power to make decisions or determine anything”.

He said: 

“How these organisations are supposed to have any impact is beyond me. 

“For example, if a Community Network was to make a recommendation to increase bus services the unitary council’s executive could just turn round and say it can’t afford it. There’s nothing for these networks to have any bite.”

Cllr Bryn Griffiths, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said although it was positive that members of communities would be working together to achieve a common goal, there were issues over the networks’ governance, accountability and how they would be financed.

He said: 

“There is potential for these networks to be hijacked by individuals for their own purposes and the role of elected members could be circumvented. I also have concerns they will go their own way and do their own thing.”