North Yorkshire Council Archives - Page 153 of 175

Tree that crushed Porsche on Harrogate street is felled

A large tree that damaged a Porsche in Harrogate during recent storms has been felled.

Zenya Dunn, who lives on Granby Road, told the Stray Ferret her partner Michael woke to find his car beneath a large splintered branch during February’s Storm Otto.

Speaking back then, she said it was the second time the Porsche had been struck by falling branches from the tree.

Ms Dunn added her Range Rover, parked nearby, and the house front window had narrowly escaped being damaged by the tree during storms. She said the couple had alerted the council to the danger numerous times.

Zenya Dunn, standing next to her partner's Michael's Porsche this morning.

Zenya Dunn, standing next to her partner’s Porsche in the aftermath of Storm Otto.

North Yorkshire Council has now pruned the tree to little more than a stump.

Jon Clubb, acting head of parks and environmental services at the council, said:

“Storm Otto caused considerable disruption to parts of North Yorkshire in February. Our parks and grounds maintenance team acted swiftly to remove a large branch on Granby Road which had fallen during the storm.

“Unfortunately, damage to the tree was so severe that it needed removing and the work was recently carried out. We will be carrying out replacement plantings this winter in line with our trees and woodland policy.

North Yorkshire County Council's highways teams arrived to deal with the tree this morning.

The splintered branch being removed in February.

North Yorkshire electric vehicle charging network ‘not fit for purpose’

The leader of the opposition on North Yorkshire Council has wished the authority “good luck” in establishing a comprehensive network of electric vehicle charging points after hearing the local electricity grid was “not fit for purpose”.

A meeting of the council’s executive was told the authority was so concerned about it impeding the establishment of the required 3,000 publicly available EV charging points by 2030 that the council was investigating using solar and hydro-electric solutions to provide power in some places.

Setting out a strategy to rapidly expand EV charging points, Cllr Keane Duncan, the authority’s executive member for highways and transportation, said the council was determined rural areas should not “fall behind”.

However, he said the rural nature of North Yorkshire and electricity grid constraints meant the county faced a relatively greater challenge in preparing for the switch to electric vehicles than elsewhere.

Cllr Keane Duncan

In addition, the relatively high proportion of properties in the county with no off-street parking – some 21% – would mean a greater demand for publicly available EV charging points than elsewhere.

The meeting heard while the council was developing on-street charging proposals it was focused on creating the publicly available EV charging points at “hub locations” where it would be convenient for residents and visitors to use them, rather than “tucked away in the corner of a car park”.

Executive members were told with £3.4m of funding already secured to expand EV charging points, the council had obtained more money than any other local authority in the country for the programme.

The council is also optimistic about landing a further £5.1m of capital and £500,000 of revenue funding to deliver on its EV charging network aspirations, but the meeting was told the lack of power grid capacity would be a key factor in the council’s ability to create an EV charging network.

Paul Haslam, a Conservative who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, warned the meeting the lack of availability on the power grid could “make a mess of our strategy if we’re not careful”.

The council’s climate change boss Cllr Greg White added:

“It’s great that we are going to have all these charging points, but are we going to have an electrical supply to these charging points to make them work because the local electricity distribution network at the moment doesn’t seem like it’s going to be fit for purpose.”

Wishing the council “good luck” in overcoming the challenges, Cllr Bryn Griffiths, the Liberal Democrat group leader, said the authority had reached “a drop in the ocean of where we need to be” in securing EV charging infrastructure, before receiving reassurances that the authority would consider changing planning policies to increase charging opportunities.

electric vehicle chargepoints (1)

The authority’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, told the meeting how he and leaders of North Yorkshire businesses had held talks with Northern Powergrid officials and the National Infrastructure Commission last week to tell them the lack of grid connectivity was damaging businesses.

He said the council had been regularly lobbying the electricity infrastructure firm to develop capacity on the grid.

Mr Flinton added:

“We are startlingly aware that when we move into post-2030 the requirement that cars are going to be non-fossil fuel that there could be an impact on North Yorkshire, and even the transition period before we move entirely to electric fuel vehicles could be problematic for North Yorkshire if we don’t get this right.

“We are in the hands of others, but we are working very hard to make those other parties understand that we in North Yorkshire are very concerned about this and require their engagement on our issues.”

Northern Powergrid is yet to respond to requests for comment.

New terrace and kiosk at Harrogate Town approved

Plans for a new terrace and merchandise kiosk at Harrogate Town’s EnviroVent Stadium have been approved.

The club submitted the proposal for a 100-person terrace near to the north stand turnstiles, to Harrogate Borough Council before the authority was abolished.

It will also see a kiosk installed to serve fans refreshments and Harrogate Town merchandise.

North Yorkshire Council has now approved the proposals.

The club said the new terrace was required because the English Football League will no longer accept perimeter standing at stadiums.

In planning documents, it said:

“The proposed terrace will accommodate spectators which use the existing perimeter standing areas and will therefore not increase the overall ground capacity.

“The small kiosk building will be used for the club shop selling on site merchandising on match days, as well as a replacement (non-alcoholic) drinks servery to replace a kiosk within the AON Terrace that was recently converted to WCs.”

It comes as the club recently saw its proposal to upgrade its Envirovent Stadium approved.

It will see almost 1,000 seats installed to bring the ground up to EFL standards.

To the south of the ground, the Myrings terrace will see 264 seats installed and the 1919 bar will be demolished and replaced with a new standing terrace.

A total of 603 seats have been installed in the Black Sheep Brewery stand.

The changes will not increase the overall capacity of 5,071 but will see the number of fans that can be seated rise from 1,193 to 2,060.

A strong end to the season has seen Simon Weaver’s team secure their status in Division Two of the EFL. They are currently 19th with one match remaining.

Weekly food waste collections in Harrogate district to be delayed over costs

An introduction of a weekly food waste collection scheme across North Yorkshire looks set to be delayed amid concern over costs.

North Yorkshire Council is set to lobby government over a planned food waste collection scheme after it estimated the scheme will cost a further £6.4 million a year.

The changes, which have been proposed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, would see councils across the UK provide a free food waste collection service by 2025.

The council already has an existing residual waste contract with AWRP SPV Ltd, which runs until 2043, and has therefore been granted an extension to bring in the changes beyond the government’s 2025 target.

However, senior councillors have raised questions over how the scheme would be paid for.

Cllr Greg White, executive councillor for environment at the council, said:

“We have pledged to try and be carbon net zero by 2030 and to do our bit to help the whole county reach the ambitious goal of being carbon negative by 2040.

“The change to a weekly food collection would give us a unique opportunity to accelerate this process.

“We want to introduce these changes long before 2043, but at the moment there is too much uncertainty around how the new collections will be paid for. At a time when the council is facing a deficit of £30 million alone in its first year, we cannot commit to that level of spending without guarantees from the Government that our costs will be covered.

“Should we get that commitment, then we will look to bring the weekly food waste collections in earlier and start engaging with residents about the changes.”

The change to weekly collections could cost the council up to an extra £6.4 million annually.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of the authority, has written to Theresa Coffey, Secretary of State for the Environment, to clarify how the project would be funded.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive will consider a recommendation to implement a separately collected food waste service from February 2043, despite the delay meaning the carbon equivalent of an extra 18 million kilometres of diesel car emissions every year.

The council said collecting food waste separately would reduce its carbon dioxide equivalent output by between 2,800 tonnes to 3,300 tonnes each year compared to the current arrangements where food waste is recovered from residual waste at Allerton Waste Recovery Park.

Authority officials have also pledged that the council will reduce its carbon footprint to net zero by 2030.

Bank holiday gathering leaves mess in Harrogate’s Valley Gardens

The boating lake in Valley Gardens had to be drained of rubbish this morning after a bank holiday gathering last night.

Gardeners were on site early this morning to clean-up after revellers left so much mess.

Numerous bin bags were filled and removed before the lake was refilled.

Jon Clubb, acting head of parks and environmental services at North Yorkshire Council, said:

“Last night we experienced some antisocial behaviour in Valley Gardens. This morning the gardeners removed rubbish, drained the boating lake and gave the surrounding area a clean. It is now refilled with water.

“This was due to take place tomorrow in anticipation of the three-day event to mark the King’s coronation at the weekend when we hope thousands of people will visit the beautiful gardens.”

Some of the rubbish

Jane Blayney, former chair of the Friends of Valley Gardens, noticed the clean-up operation this morning. She said:

“It was a dreadful mess. Sacks and sacks of rubbish were taken.

“I felt sorry for the gardeners, who are busy enough and were diverted from their preparations for the coronation weekend.”

Former homeless hostel could be converted to social housing in Harrogate

Plans have been submitted to convert a Harrogate former homeless hostel into social housing.

Last summer, Harrogate Borough Council unveiled plans to build a modest number of social homes at seven sites it owns across the district.

The plans included converting Cavendish House on Robert Street which was operated by the council from 1983 until November 2021 when it closed.

In 2021, the council opened a new homeless centre called Fern House in Starbeck.

The former Robert Street hostel had nine bedsits, which in plans registered last week would be converted into six self-contained apartments.

Average house prices are around 11 times the median annual income of people who work in Harrogate and it has made the area one of the most unaffordable places to live in England.

In planning documents published before it was abolished at the end of March, Harrogate Borough Council said converting Cavendish House would make a small dent in its social housing waiting list, which now features over 2,100 households.

In 1974, the council owned 7,000 council houses across the Harrogate district but this has fallen to 3,800 since the Conservative government introduced the Right to Buy scheme in the 1980s.

Planning documents state:

“The building was utilised previously as temporary accommodation for single homeless households, however it is no longer fit for purpose and does not meet the needs of this client group (Fern House, a new facility for the same client group, has recently been completed at Spa Lane).

“The building has been empty since November 2021. As such, it has a negative impact on residential amenity and increasingly risks attracting anti-social behaviour.

“The development proposals will deliver much needed affordable accommodation in a redundant building and a highly sustainable location, complying full with national and local planning policy guidance.”

In March, plans were approved to build one two-bedroom social home at a council-owned plot of land in Huby.

The council also hopes to develop a site on Halfpenny Lane in Knaresborough into 14 homes for market sale, social rent and shared ownership.

North Yorkshire Council, which succeeded Harrogate Borough Council, will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

Crunch Harrogate Station Gateway meeting set for this week

Harrogate and Knareborough councillors will have the opportunity to back or oppose the Station Gateway scheme at a meeting on Friday.

The meeting has been specially arranged by North Yorkshire Council and the authority’s ruling Conservative executive has pledged to abide by whatever decision local councillors collectively make about the project.

A final decision on whether it goes ahead is expected in the summer.

The £11.2 million Station Gateway has been in development for three years after funding was won from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund to make the town centre more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

But it’s proved to be controversial with the results of the latest round of public consultation, published in January, suggesting the Harrogate public are narrowly against it.

For or against?

This week’s meeting will include 13 councillors — eight Liberal Democrats and five Conservatives.

Conservative councillor for Bilton and Nidd Gorge, Paul Haslam, is a proponent of the Station Gateway.

He has argued it would give a boost for active travel in the town and the changes would result in a better first impression of Harrogate for people arriving by bus or train.

Latest Station Gateway visuals which show Harrogate's James Street pedestrianised.

Station Gateway proposals show Harrogate’s James Street pedestrianised.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Harlow and St Georges, Michael Schofield, came out against the project last week.

He questioned the council’s track record in delivering active travel schemes following the Otley Road cycle path saga and he believes the disruption caused around Station Parade during construction would hurt town centre businesses.

Public responds to traffic orders

The council’s head of major projects and infrastructure, Richard Binks, has prepared a report for councillors that includes details of proposed traffic regulation orders that were submitted last month in anticipation of the Gateway scheme going ahead.

The orders include making the section of Station Parade to the junction with Bower Road one-way and introducing a northbound one-way section on Cheltenham Mount between Cheltenham Parade and Mount Parade.

There is a proposed order to bring in a 24-hour bus lane on the northern section of Station Parade.

Another order has been proposed to part-pedestrianise James Street between Princes Street and Station Parade.

Since the orders were proposed in March, 41 comments have been received with most being negative. However, the report notes that letters of support about the orders are not usually expected.

Concerns have been raised by residents about the potential for increased congestion due to Station Parade becoming single-lane.

In response, the council has said modelling has suggested the gateway could mean it takes just 50 additional seconds to travel across town during the evening rush hour.

However, it called this a relatively small increase and said it does not take into account “successful strategy modal switch outcomes”, which essentially means getting people out of their cars and onto bicycles — one of the key ambitions of the project.

How to watch the meeting

Next week’s meeting starts at 10am at the Civic Centre in Harrogate and it will be streamed live on YouTube.

Anyone who wishes to speak at the meeting or ask a question has until midday today to submit a request. More information on how to get in touch with the council can be found here.

‘Few teething issues’ with North Yorkshire Council launch, say political leaders

Few teething issues have emerged during first month of the new North Yorkshire Council, the leaders of its political groups have agreed.

Councillors said residents facing confusion over who to contact and delays of about 30 minutes when trying to phone the council’s call centre had been the most major cause of concern since the county council and seven district authorities fused operations on April 1.

Ahead of North Yorkshire Council’s launch its chief executive Richard Flinton warned while the authority’s basic infrastructure had been created ahead “snagging issues” were expected when the new council launched due to the scale of the merger and “eight different ways of working”.

When asked whether he was pleased with how the transfer had gone so far, the Conserative-run council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les said:

“Yes. It has gone surprisingly well, but with the amount of effort put in by Richard Flinton and his team I shouldn’t be surprised.”

He added:

“We always said if you are going to chose a time to do local government reorganisation you wouldn’t necessarily be coming out of a pandemic with a war going on in Ukraine and various other things happening.

“You wouldn’t chose to launch on April 1, when council tax bills are going out for a new authority and people renew their garden waste collection waste collections with the new authority, but still have phone numbers for the old authorities.”

Speaking ahead of a meeting behind closed doors with Mr Flinton and the other political group leaders to discuss the council’s first month, Cllr Les said the unitary’s contact centre had become deluged, resulting in lengthy answering delays and potentially some residents hanging up.

He said:

“The contact centres have been busy and have not been as to strength as we thought they might be. We are taking steps to increase recruitment and increase training.”

The leaders of the council’s other political groups agreed no other major issues had emerged during the authority’s first month.

North Yorkshire Council civic centre Knapping Mount

North Yorkshire Council civic centre at Knapping Mount.

Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said while the unitary authority appeared to be “generally working”, its call centre had been “an absolute abomination”.

He added:

“Selby Town Council just can’t do anything because people have been forever ringing them up because North Yorkshire’s call centre doesn’t work.”

Green group leader Cllr Kevin Foster said:

“This has been a massive undertaking and on the whole things have gone very well. There’s still lots of work to do, but if you’d asked me if I’d have accepted this when the changeover went in I would have grabbed it with both hands.”

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths said residents struggling to find phone numbers to contact the unitary, which was “trying to force people to use the internet a lot”, and delays in answering, had represented “a mixed start” for the unitary.

He added:

“With a big organisation of about 10,000 employees there are bound to be a few hiccups.”

Independent group leader Cllr Stuart Parsons added:

“Things could have gone better, but it also could have gone a lot worse.”

He said the centralised call centre had not appeared to work as well as “phoning the old numbers for district council call centres”.

Cllr Parsons said:

“It’s been mainly hiccups, nothing major appears to have gone wrong, which is very comforting. It’s just a question of trying to iron out the hiccups and ensuring services improve considerably.”

Residents to meet council about future of Otley Road sustainable travel

Officers at North Yorkshire Council will meet with Harrogate residents this month to discuss how £565,000 can be spent on sustainable travel around Harrogate’s Otley Road.

The former county council allocated £4.6m to deliver a sustainable transport package in the area but the results so far have disheartened both residents and cyclists.

Most of the money has been spent on the widening of the Harlow Moor Road junction for cars, smart traffic lights and the roundly-criticised cycle path.

Rene Dziabas, chair of Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Association, told a meeting of the group’s members last week that it will be putting forward ideas on what the remaining £565,000 could be spent on.

Mr Dziabas said:

“I have convinced the council to hold a workshop on ideas for what we think are sensible things to put on Otley Road. That will be held on second half of May. Local residents have a right to have an input on this.”

Otley Road has faced years of stop-start roadworks and residents have also been scarred by the experience of the cycle path, which was so unpopular that the council were forced to abandon its second phase earlier this year.

One resident asked Mr Dziabas what improvements can realistically be made with the £565,000 but he said it could be the start of a long-term plan to reduce congestion on Otley Road and get people out of their cars.

He said:

“The £565,000 won’t give you much but what we need is a sustainability plan. It might cost X million and take five years but we need a proper plan in place that convinces people that you will deliver sustainability. This bit could be the start of it.”

Mr Dziabas added that he has been encouraged the approach taken by North Yorkshire Council who he said “appear more willing to listen”.

He said:

“We’re having meetings but it’s a double-edged sword. We’ve complained for a long time that they’re not talking to us, now they are talking to us they can say [afterwards] oh, we have talked to you. But if you don’t talk you can’t influence.”

It’s expected that proposals for Otley Road will be put before councillors on the Harrogate & Knaresborough area consituency committee in July.

600-home Harrogate housing scheme to get shop and community centre

North Yorkshire Council has approved plans to build a shop and community centre at the 600-home King Edwin Park scheme on Penny Pot Lane in Harrogate.

The development by Persimmon Homes is one of the largest housing projects to be built in Harrogate for many years.

It’s being constructed in stages with outline plans first given the go-ahead by Harrogate Borough Council in 2015.

As part of the original approval, the developer agreed to build retail and community facilities that residents can use.

Planning documents state the shop will be 201 square metres, which is a similar size to a small convenience store run by national supermarket chains. The community centre will connect to the shop and have a floorspace of 121 square metres.

They will be built to the east of the site where homes have already been put up.

A new footpath link will be created to connect residents living at King Edwin Park.

The developer says it will plant flowers, trees and hedges amongst wildflowers and grassland around the new building.

It will also include 12 car parking bays and 12 cycle spaces. This is higher than what the guidance suggests but it the developer says it wants to avoid shoppers parking on pavements and inconveniencing residents.

Solar panels will be placed on the roof to generate renewable energy.

Planning documents state:

“The single storey design ensures that the retail unit and community centre is accessible to everyone including wheelchair users.

“The proposal would contribute to providing an accessible new community facility and retail unit for existing and future residents of the area including the housing estates located near to but outside of the wider development boundary.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Persimmon Homes if it has a tenant for the retail unit but we did not receive a response by the time of publication.

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For or against?

Public responds to traffic orders

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How to watch the meeting

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