North Yorkshire Council Archives - Page 112 of 175

Plan to create 200 HGV parking bays at Wetherby Services

Plans have been submitted to expand Wetherby Services to create 200 new heavy goods vehicle parking spaces.

Rapleys LLP which has tabled a screening application on behalf of services operator Moto Hospitality Ltd for the site off junction 46 of the A1(M).

It would see the site expand to create 200 HGV parking spaces, while the current HGV parking facilities would be replaced with 118 electric vehicle charging bays.

In documents submitted to the council, the developer said the extension was required to meet demand at the services.

It said:

“The proposed circa 200 new HGV parking spaces form part of an urgently required extension to the existing motorway service area.

“This proposal arises from the need for increased HGV parking capacity at the existing motorway service area.”

The planned layout for the parking spaces at Wetherby Services.

It added that its plan to include 118 electric vehicle charging spaces would align with Moto’s strategy to increase infrastructure at its sites.

The document said:

“Electric vehicles will play a big part in the transition to zero emission transport, but to achieve these targets, it is imperative that suitable infrastructure is provided to support electric vehicles.

“The proposed development forms part of Moto’s wider strategy to bring EV infrastructure at their services.”

The move comes as Gridserve, a sustainable energy firm in Kirk Deighton, also applied to North Yorkshire Council to install 12 charging bays within the existing services car park.

North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on both proposals at a later date.

Harrogate district garden waste fees set to increase by 7%

North Yorkshire Council looks set to increase garden waste collection charges in the Harrogate district by almost 7% next year.

A report to a meeting of the council’s environment executive members meeting on Monday proposes charging £46.50 for garden waste subscription across the county.

People in the Harrogate district paid £43.50 this year, which means they are in line for a 6.89% price hike.

Charges for the often fortnightly roadside collections of 240-litre bins had been frozen for several years for most district and borough authorities and earlier this year council officers said the average cost in Yorkshire and Humber region for garden waste was around £44.

When challenged over the charges, the authority has emphasised the collections are a non-statutory service, and that it is not considered fair “for people who do not use the service to have to subsidise it”.

The officers’ report states the total number of garden waste licences bought in 2023/24 is forecast to be 126,750, generating an annual income of £4.996m, which is £302,000 above the income forecast for the year.

The report states the extra income is due to Selby district area achieving “an impressive participation rate” of 43% since introducing charges in July with total subscriptions at 18,500, compared to the target of 6,900.

The council has previously warned of the potential to lose some subscribers as a result of its increase in charges.

Nevertheless, the report to the meeting states there has been no impact on the level of subscriptions as a result of harmonising the garden waste subscription charge in any of the former district and boroughs which already charged for the service.

The report states:

“If people choose not to subscribe to the garden waste collection service, experience from other authorities shows that residents tend to compost at home instead as there is no corresponding rise in residual waste tonnages to match the reduction in garden waste tonnages, therefore there is little impact on the environment.”

Council hires West Yorkshire company to clean Ripon toilets amid staffing issues

North Yorkshire Council has hired a West Yorkshire company to clean toilets in Masham and Ripon amid staffing issues.

Cleaning at public toilets in both areas of the Harrogate district were previously carried out by the local authority.

However, council officials said the service had been “failing” due to a lack of staff and the toilets were at risk of closure if a contractor was not brought in.

As a result, a £32,760 contract has been directly awarded with no competitive tender to Marsden Contract Services.

According to the government’s contract portal, the company is based on Hollins Lane in Keighley although its website says it is based in Skipton.

Karl Battersby, corporate director for environmental services at the council, said the move was necessary as a recruitment process had found “no suitable applicants” to take on the cleaning roles.

When asked why the service was not put out to competitive tender, Mr Battersby added:

“Toilet cleaning has been undertaken in Ripon and Masham by staff from North Yorkshire Council, and previously the former Harrogate Borough Council, but the service had been falling behind due to staffing issues, and our recruitment process had found no suitable applicants to take on the roles.

“A direct award was made with a trusted contractor as the service needed immediate attention.

“Failure to act quickly would have resulted in a fall in cleaning standards or closure of sites and neither of these options would have been acceptable.

“This contract is for one year to help us maintain our services, after which, if needed, we will follow a competitive tender process.”

Plans resubmitted for children’s nursery at farm shop near Boroughbridge

The owners of Yolk Farm and Minskip Farm Shop have resubmitted plans to build a children’s nursery after North Yorkshire Council refused a previous bid in May.

Ben and Emma Mosey hope to create 74 full-day places for pre-school age children in a setting at the farm based around the curiosity and forest school approaches, which encourage independence through outdoor learning.

The Minskip Farm site, near Boroughbridge, is already a diversified agricultural operation and the owners now hope to create a family-friendly visitor experience which is “safe, fun and educational for children”, according to planning documents.

According to the application, there is a high demand for early years places in the area because there are 229 nursery-aged children in Boroughbridge but only 85 spaces.

However, the council previously listed four reasons for refusal, including the site being outside of development limits and the applicants failing to show how the nursery would diversify their farming business.

The fresh application submitted to the council attempts to address the reasons the council opposed the plan.

It includes more details on the local need for a new nursery, accessibility, sustainable design and how it will diversify the farming business.

The design has also been scaled back to reduce its impact on the landscape and now features reduced parking and hardstanding.

Documents state:

“Overall, the resubmission demonstrates that the proposed children’s nursery will meet an acute need in the area, and will provide a high quality and unique play and learning environment for children which aligns with and makes the most of the existing family-friendly diversified activities at this small farm, and is suitably accessible given its farm location.

“The visual impact of the amended scheme will not be adverse in the context of the extant access and parking consent, existing built up farm and diversified activities. In addition technical concerns relating to highways and sustainable design have been addressed.”

North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on the plans at a later date.

‘Rethink’ needed after another Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee cancelled

North Yorkshire Council’s system of delegating key planning decisions to officers needs a “rethink”, according to the chair of the Harrogate and Knaresborough planning committee.

Cllr Pat Marsh’s comments come as the council has cancelled next week’s planning committee for the area due to a lack of agenda items.

Planning committees comprise of a group of cross-party councillors who are supposed to meet each month to make decisions on key planning applications.

But it is the third time a meeting has been cancelled since North Yorkshire Council was created in April to replace Harrogate Borough Council as the lead planning authority.

Councillors are able to call in contentious applications for committees to consider if there are sound planning reasons.

However, elected councillors across the county have been left frustrated due to far fewer applications being decided by the committees, which cover each parliamentary constituency area in North Yorkshire.

Cllr Marsh told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she has expressed her concern to officers in Northallerton regarding the issue.

She said:

“As councillors we do need to be seen to be taking planning decisions especially in the areas we represent we have the local knowledge and understanding.

“Planning is all about openness and transparency and we do need to make sure that is how the public see it. Hopefully the officers will have taken my concerns onboard and that a rethink is happening.

“I am not critical of our planning officers they do a great job it is just about the scheme of delegation that does need a rethink and soon.”

According to a report by the Local Democracy Reporting Sserive in September, a council planning officer told a meeting there had been no attempt to try to block proposals going before councillors and officers were “trying to understand where those lines should be drawn”.

He added the authority would examine changing the balance over which planning applications should go before councillors.

The officer said:

“The intention here isn’t to disenfranchise members. Members are a key part of this process.”

Green grants spark concern North Yorkshire will miss out to York

Council leaders have defended funding allocations for net zero projects in York amid claims they received a disproportionate amount of money to North Yorkshire.

A joint meeting of the Conservative-run North Yorkshire and Labour-run City of York councils to discuss the expected creation of a mayoral combined authority in January heard while the councils had agreed on how to split the first significant tranche of government devolution funding, uncertainty still surrounds the transfer of powers from Westminster.

Ahead of the meeting opposition councillors in North Yorkshire claimed the proposed division of the funds for net zero schemes would see York receive 47% of £6.2m being spent on capital schemes, despite having a population of about a third the size of North Yorkshire.

A total of 23 schemes will receive a share of the funding unlocked by the region’s proposed devolution deal, subject to devolution progressing for York and North Yorkshire.

They include street and building LED lighting schemes in York as well as innovation in energy generation, including The Electric Cow Project at Askham Bryan College in the city.

The farming scheme will fund slurry-fuelled conversion equipment for dairy farms across the region to generate electricity from cow manure.

Other projects approved aim to tackle a decline of biodiversity, such as the project at the Denton Park Estate, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, where funds will support moorland restoration.

Critics of the proposed net zero programme have claimed York residents will benefit from millions of pounds of extra funding at the expense of communities across the vast rural county.

However, York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership boss James Farrar told the meeting the schemes which were being funded represented “a good spread” across the area, including ones in York and every constituency in North Yorkshire.

Countering the criticism, leaders of both councils heralded the investment as a milestone for the region, with North Yorkshire Council leader Cllr Carl Les saying it was “a very exciting time”.

City of York Council’s leader Cllr Claire Douglas said addressing climate change was becoming increasingly important and the proposals represented the first cross-region thinking, rather than for York or for North Yorkshire as entities.

She said:

“It’s really fantastic to see there’s such a wide coverage of the region.

“I think it’s also fantastic to see that this is the first significant investment that the combined authority is able to commit to.”

Harrogate housing company says 60-home scheme ‘undeliverable’ due to costs

A Harrogate-based housing developer has warned that a 60-home scheme near Ripon is “undeliverable” because of the terms being imposed.

V & A Homes has planning permission to develop a 6.8-acre site in Back Lane, Sharow (pictured).

But the section 106 agreement agreed between the developer and the local authority setting out planning obligations has proved to be a stumbling block.

The agreement requires 40 percent of the homes to be classed as affordable housing.

Besides this, the section 106 agreement requires V & A Homes to make a number of other financial contributions ranging from supporting education provision and traffic calming measures to funding improvements for Sharow Village Hall.

The housing site in Sharow, which is earmarked for 60 homes.

The site in Sharow earmarked for 60 homes.

Working on behalf of V & A Homes, consultants Continuum have submitted a financial viability assessment to North Yorkshire Council planners, after conducting detailed appraisals relating to the scheme.

The report, which has been uploaded on the North Yorkshire Council planning portal, said:

“Continuum conclude that the scheme cannot support any section 106 contributions (including affordable housing) as required by the current section 106 agreement and the section 106 agreement should be modified in order to allow for the scheme to be deliverable.”

The consultants added:

“The appraisals show that the proposed scheme makes a significant loss if the section 106 agreement’s contributions were not modified. Based on this, if contributions are not reduced, the scheme would be undeliverable.”

The report listed other factors, including increased developer finance rates, rising interest rates, a slowing residential market and ‘abnormal’ costs on site, which have impacted on the viability of the development.

The developer is now seeking to modify the terms of the section 106 agreement.

The report said:

“At the time the application was being considered, our client highlighted that there were issues with the viability of the scheme due to cost inflation and abnormal costs.

“Harrogate council however informed that our client could undertake a viability assessment after receiving a planning consent instead of delaying the granting of a planning consent.

“Subsequently, since the granting of the planning consent, our client has requested that they be able to run a viability case to reduce the section 106 contributions through a section 106 modification. This has been accepted by North Yorkshire Council and this financial viability assessment forms the basis of the evidence behind the modification of the section 106 contributions.”

In November 2022, a planning application for the Sharow development was submitted to Harrogate Borough Council as a joint proposal by V&A and non-profit developer Broadacres Housing Association Limited. The application was approved by North Yorkshire Council planners in April.

North Yorkshire Council set to lobby government for water quality measures

North Yorkshire Council looks set to write to the government calling for fundamental reform of the planning system to improve the county’s rivers, watercourses and coastline.

The Conservative-run council will consider pressing Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey, to make a series of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to avert pollution as a result of new development.

The proposal has been approved by the authority’s transport, economy and environment scrutiny committee as a recommendation to be considered at a full meeting of the authority next month, alongside a series of other proposals to get to grips with water pollution in the county.

The meeting heard councillors raise serious concerns over water pollution in rivers such as the Swale and Ure, which run through Rishi Sunak’s constituency, as well as the county’s coastal waters, where marine life has repeatedly been impacted by a mystery issue in the water.

Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Mason told the committee the proposals needed bolstering by national policy to ensure developers could not use devices such as viability tests to avoid consideration of water issues.

He said:

“We need to be lobbying hard for this to be included in national legislation.”

Cllr Hannah Gostlow, whose division includes Knaresborough and the River Nidd, which saw 870 sewage dump incidents last year, said lobbying government would be viewed as “a major step” by the authority.

The proposed measures will aim to establish what the impacts and receptors are in relation to any development.

The meeting heard neither Local Plan policies nor national framework have the capacity to extend consideration in planning decisions to where foul water is in the main sewer, in terms of how it is treated.

Councillors were told a motion of council, to make water issues a “material planning consideration” would be of limited weight, and were they to be treated as having more weight in a development decision than the Local Plan or national framework, the decision could be challenged by developers at appeal.

Councillors from a range of political groups told the meeting there was a clear mandate to seek to have more robust engagement with water firms “to fully understand capacity constraints and opportunities”.

It is hoped making water firms statutory consultees in planning decisions, in the same way as exists for flooding and highways authorities, would allow the companies to embed expanding their capacity and technologies to reduce the incidence of flooding, whilst accommodating increased usage.

After the meeting, the council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said he sympathised with proposals to make water firms statutory consultees in planning decisions.

He said he believed councillors would all support lobbying the government to enable water firms to levy infrastructure charges on property developers to enable them to finance improving the capacity of systems such as sewage.

When asked whether the government should introduce a tougher system of fines for pollution breaches, Cllr Les said he was concerned water users would face increased charges to cover the firms’ fines.

Taxi drivers threaten judicial review over new single zone

Taxi drivers have threatened legal action against North Yorkshire Council’s decision to abolish hackney carriage zones.

Senior councillors backed the introduction of a county-wide zone on April 1 at a meeting last Tuesday (October 17). It means drivers can now operate anywhere across the county, rather than being limited to areas such as the former Harrogate district.

Taxi drivers say this has led to a range of problems, including drivers flocking to popular urban areas while ignoring less profitable rural areas.

Now licensing consultant David B Wilson has claimed the decision to introduce the single zone was unlawful and has threatened action.

In a letter to Barry Khan, the council’s monitoring officer, seen by the Stray Ferret, Mr Wilson gave notice that drivers had instigated a judicial review pre-action protocol.

He urged the authority to find a resolution to the matter and investigate why the council’s executive had legally approved the measure.

Mr Wilson said:

“Before instructing solicitors to pursue an application for judicial review, including service of the pre-action protocol letter before action, my clients have instructed me to write to you in the hope this matter can be finally resolved without the need for either party to incur significant further costs.

“As futile as it may be, as the challenged resolution was made with legal advice provided by you (monitoring officer) and Laura Venn (deputy monitoring officer), for the sake of completeness, my clients ask you to review the law and reconsider whether the council has acted lawfully when purportedly passing an extension resolution by the executive on 17 October 2023.”

The move comes after Ripon-based taxi driver Richard Fieldman urged councillors to delay the decision on October 17 as legal advice he received suggested the decision should be made during a full meeting of all 90 councillors rather than by its 10-person executive.

However, in response, Cllr Greg White and the council’s chief legal officer Barry Khan both said they were satisfied the executive had the right to make the decision.

The executive then voted unanimously to confirm the abolition of the seven zones and to create the single county-wide zone.

Council removes anti-speeding scarecrows in Nidd for ‘safety reasons’

North Yorkshire Council has removed several scarecrows created as part of an anti-speeding campaign in a village between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

Residents in Nidd put up about 16 scarecrows near the B6165 and Town Street this month as part of a campaign to reduce the speed limit after two recent fatal accidents.

Several were designed to look like police officers and some contained messages.

But North Yorkshire Council removed the ones immediately alongside the highways last week. Several on private land remain.

A council spokesperson said:

“Our highways team contacted festival organisers on Thursday requesting that scarecrows near the road were removed ahead of Storm Babet.

“They were not able to get hold of the organisers so officers were sent to remove scarecrows close to the road due to safety reasons.

“The scarecrows are being kept safe at the highways depot for collection. The organisers and parish council were informed of this.”

Several scarecrows have high visability jackets.

A police officer scarecrow.

The activists’ creative scarecrow stunt has divided opinion in Nidd.

Some villagers embraced the move to raise awareness of the campaign to reduce the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph.

The B6165, which links Ripley and Knaresborough, has some sharp, narrow bends in Nidd, especially near Nidd Hall.

Villager and co-organiser Jayne Brown said the scarecrow festival served its purpose:

“It definitely had an big impact on reducing the speed and making the lives of the people in the village safer.”

Ms Brown added that less than 36 hours after the scarecrows were removed a car crashed into a wall.

But others thought the stunt was ill-advised.

The clerk of Nidd Parish Council, who asked not to be named, said although it sympathised with the cause it did not think the methods were appropriate.

The clerk reiterated her previous comment, which said:

“We are concerned that any distractions to drivers as they approach, what we all agree is a dangerous bend, is not sensible.”

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