North Yorkshire Council Archives - Page 90 of 162

North Yorkshire gateway schemes branded ‘risky’ for taxpayers

Council finance bosses have warned long-awaited transport schemes in Harrogate, Selby and Skipton will put taxpayers’ money at risk.

A meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s executive on Tuesday saw the Tory-led authority push forward an £11.2m project for Harrogate, £28.7m of improvements for Selby and a £7.8m initiative for Skipton, as part of the Department for Transport’s Transforming Cities Fund programme.

Before the meeting, the council issued a press release saying the schemes would be “transformative” for the towns. But all three have been scaled back from their original proposals and there are concerns costs could rise due to inflation.

In Harrogate, the latest plans focus on public realm improvements to Station Square and One Arch, improved access to the bus station and better coordinated of traffic signals.

More ambitious aspects, such as the part-pedestrianisation of James Street, reducing a stretch of Station Parade to single lane traffic and changes to the Odeon roundabout have been dropped.

In Selby, works will see improvements to pedestrian and cycling access along Station Road and Ousegate, the new station access and car park to the east, along with improvements to the station building and the new plaza entrance into Selby Park.

In Skipton the scheme will focus on a canal path connection from the railway station to the cattle mart and college, and a walking route to the bus station, including Black Walk and a replacement Gallows Bridge.

In response to the proposals, the authority’s Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright issued a statement saying Selby “deserved better” and that the proposal had been stripped back so much it now represented “a relatively, cheap and cheerful, superficial facelift”.

Harrogate Conservative councillor John Mann told the meeting the business group Independent Harrogate was convinced the scheme would fail to tackle traffic issues in the town, and a bypass or relief road was needed, particularly with more than 3,000 homes set to be built in the town’s west.

However, executive member for transport Cllr Keane Duncan replied that a consultation over congestion in Harrogate had concluded residents wanted sustainable public transport improvements more than new roads and the authority was not about to “open old wounds”.

He said the proposals represented “landmark” improvements for the three towns, before underlining concerns over funding large scale projects “in this era of high inflation and supply chain issues”.

Cllr Duncan said the authority needed to be “realistic about what we can achieve”, and said the revised proposals focused on “core elements with the most public support” and were based on “frank, honest conversations”.

The meeting heard while the authority was set to submit full business cases to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority for the Skipton and Selby schemes in December, and for the Harrogate scheme, as soon as possible, key elements of the project would now be brought forward at later dates.

Cllr Duncan said:

”We are not reneging on the ambition and scale of our overall vision.”

The council’s finance boss, Cllr Gareth Dadd said:

“These three projects, whichever way you cut it, are risky in terms of financial over-runs. A 10 per cent over-run could put this authority at £5m of risk.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it but we have to justify any cost over-run to every member right across this county. At what point can we get off the hook if it all becomes unsustainable?”

The meeting then heard the council would not be able to “mitigate against all the potential cost over-runs”.

The authority’s environment director Karl Battersby said the council would not enter into contracts unless they represented good value for taxpayers and were affordable within the proposed budgets.

Council approves multi-million pound Bewerley Park upgrade

Senior councillors have given the go-ahead for a major investment in its outdoor learning centres at Bewerley Park and East Barnby.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive yesterday approved spending £4.2m on an 84-bed accommodation block at Bewerley Park, near Pateley Bridge, and improvements to the accommodation block and dining room at East Barnby, near Whitby.

Bewerley Park was built in the 1940s and has been used by North Yorkshire schoolchildren for decades. Its activities, which include canoeing, rock climbing and orienteering, enable young people to learn life skills and have fun.

The council’s outdoor learning service charges between £145 and £170 per night to attend Bewerley Park but it has struggled to record a profit since 2015.

This year it hiked the charge by up to £30 a night due to inflationary pressures.

The council’s Conservative executive member for finance, Gareth Dadd, said the service was “on its knees” but the investment has rescued the two sites “from the jaws of death”.

He added:

“We were ready to send bulldozers in. Let’s make no bones about it.

“Officers and staff have responded and come up with what is a sustainable business model. Credit to them all in developing that.”

Further works at Bewerley Park could take place at a later date with a decision expected by 2028. Cllr Dadd said any future expansion will be dependent on the success of the new accommodation block.

The council will still need to obtain planning permission for the work but it says the centres will remain open during construction.

Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, the council’s executive member for education, learning and skills, added:

“This is an exciting project. For decades both centres have proven very popular, being visited by generations of families. Thousands of children and young people visit the centres each year and leave with positive, happy memories.

“It’s vital that our centres continue to deliver wonderful experiences in a more modern environment.”

Farmers urged not to leave mud on North Yorkshire roads

Farmers and lorry drivers in North Yorkshire are being urged not to leave mud on the roads.

North Yorkshire Council said today people have been in touch reporting muddy roads following the recent wet spell.

It prompted the council to call on drivers of agricultural and construction vehicles to be responsible when using public routes.

Cllr Keane Duncan, the council’s executive member for highways and transportation, said:

“We understand that this is a busy time in the farming calendar, and that this year the prolonged period of rain is likely to have made conditions worse than usual.

“However, that makes it more important than ever that if farmers or construction vehicle drivers do need to use public roads, they take their responsibilities seriously.”

Cllr Duncan added drivers leaving mud risked legal action:

“If mud on the road results in injury, damage to property, loss or inconvenience, legal action can follow, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment.”

The council said farmers or construction vehicle operators must:

Keep to their own farm roads whenever possible.
Keep to low speeds and prevent mud from being deposited by removing any excess before driving on to roads.
Be prepared to hire equipment to promptly remove deposits.
Use authorised signs prominently positioned for road users to see.
Clean the road as necessary during the working day and always at the end.
Ensure that equipment and labour is available and is suitable for the soil and weather conditions.
When using a contractor, ensure agreement is reached beforehand on who is responsible for mud on the road (signs, cleaning etc) and that suitable public liability insurance is in place.

You can report mud on the road here.

Council plans to bring North Yorkshire leisure services in-house

North Yorkshire Council looks set to bring the entirety of its leisure services in-house.

The move would consolidate its operators, including Brimhams Active, into an in-house service over the next four years.

North Yorkshire Council’s transition overview and scrutiny committee will consider the proposal at a meeting on Monday (December 4).

Cllr Simon Myers, executive councillor for culture, arts and housing at North Yorkshire Council, said:

“The strategic leisure review provides us with an exciting opportunity to transform the delivery of our leisure service and improve outcomes for communities across North Yorkshire.

“What we are recommending puts us at the forefront of a national movement to transform services with a renewed focus on physical and mental health and wider well-being.”

The recommendations follow the first phase of the council’s strategic leisure review, which includedinput from communities and sports groups, as well as organisations such as Sport England and North Yorkshire Sport.

A cross-party working group of councillors visited sites throughout North Yorkshire and their feedback also informed the proposals.

The council said the proposals will build on current best practice, expertise and experience and aim to transform leisure centres into sport and active well-being hubs.

Meanwhile, a report to the committee also recommends carrying out a leisure investment strategy, which will include a review of each leisure site.

The report added:

“This will build on the work already undertaken from the asset condition surveys and will consider further the condition of each site, future role and sustainability as a part of the new delivery model.”

The move comes as Brimhams Active, which was set up by the former Harrogate Borough Council in 2021, recently completed multi-million pound refurbishments at the Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre and Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre.

The company was set up following a strategic review carried out by the borough council, which recommended a local authority controlled company called Brimhams Active be formed to run leisure services in the district.

Its sites include Harrogate Leisure and Wellness Centre, Knaresborough Leisure and Wellness Centre, the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in Ripon and Nidderdale Leisure and Wellness Centre in Pateley Bridge.

Councillors push ahead with scaled-back £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway

Senior Conservative councillors have agreed to drastically scale-back Harrogate’s £11.2m Station Gateway in an effort to rescue the troubled scheme.

This morning North Yorkshire Council’s executive said it will remove the part-pedestrianisation of James Street from the plans and will end its hopes of reducing Station Parade to single lane traffic so it can build cycle lanes.

The council said a rethink was needed because Harrogate-based property firm Hornbeam Park Developments, which owns several commercial properties on James Street, issued a legal challenge in the summer that left the original vision in tatters.

The council admitted that it made a technical error during the consultation stages of the proposal.

It means the council’s flagship active travel scheme for Harrogate is still set to go ahead but may only include a redeveloped One Arch and Station Square, better traffic signals, a bus lane on lower Station Parade, new paving for pedestrians and cycling parking at Harrogate Station.

North Yorkshire Council said it will explore the possibility of creating south-bound segregated cycle on Station Parade although this is not guaranteed.

The council is also developing gateway schemes in Skipton and Selby worth a combined £42m with funding from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund.

The council’s executive member for highways, Cllr Keane Duncan, said today:

“Delivering capital projects of this scale in an era of high inflation and supply chain issues is not straightforward and not easy. It’s important we as an executive do not shy away from that reality. It’s important we are clear and realistic about what we can achieve.

“Our revised proposals focus on the core elements with the most public support and are built on cross-party engagement and frank and honest conversations.

“We are not reneging on the ambition and scale of our overall vision. The update today represents positive progress and puts us in the best possible position to deliver this landmark package of investment whilst avoid potential pitfalls, delays and constraints that we’re being very honest about.”

Due to inflation, the Station Gateway project will still use its entire £11.2m budget, despite key elements being removed.

A report that went before councillors ahead of today’s meeting warned there are financial risks in developing a revised scheme.

This point was reiterated by executive member for finance, Cllr Gareth Dadd, who said the authority could be left “on the hook” if costs spiral.

The Department for Transport previously insisted that all projects must be built before March 2025.

This leaves a tight window for the council to get the project finished in time. The council also does not know if the government will agree to the changes.

The council must now undertake more public consultation, publish updated Traffic Regulation Orders and submit a new business case to West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which won the initial funding. It expects this process to take another five months.

If the business case is approved next summer, construction could begin by Autumn 2024.

Hampsthwaite garage expansion plans finally set for go-ahead

Simon Graeme Auto Services Centre‘s plans to build a new MOT and service building in Hampsthwaite finally look set to be approved.

The garage, which has been situated alongside the A59 for three decades, has been keen to expand for some time. But it has faced a lengthy battle for planning permission.

North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon planning committee will decide on its latest plans on Tuesday next week, and a council case officer has recommended the seven-person committee approves the bid.

The proposed new building, which would include two MOT bays and five servicing bays, would be situated on the edge of Nidderdale National Landscape, which was previously known as Nidderdale AONB, where there are strict planning planning rules. It is also outside the council’s development area.

In January, the council said the scheme would “create a significant level of landscape harm to both the open countryside and the views into and out of the Nidderdale AONB” and turned down the application.

A visual of the planned new garage.

The company, based on Grayston Plain Lane, submitted revised plans, which the council again recommended for refusal in October. But the planning committee decided instead to defer it so the company could revise the landscaping and provide additional information about drainage and design.

Cllr Andrew Williams, a member of the Conservative and Independents group who represents Ripon Minster and Moorside told October’s meeting the Nidderdale AONB should be a place for people to live and work and “not a museum for townies to visit on a weekend”.

Now council documents published ahead of next week’s planning committee meeting say the new MOT and service building should go ahead. The existing overflow car park would be removed as part of the scheme.

They say:

“It is considered that the proposal would have an economic benefit to the area and that following the revisions to the landscaping proposal and the provision of additional information in relation to sustainability of design and waste that the proposal would meet the requirements of local plan policy EC2 in relation to the expansion of an existing business in the countryside.”

The documents add the current scheme also differs from the previous proposal because the previous bid was to move the entire operation, which will now be split between two sites.

The 0.5-hectare site would create five new posts to take the number of staff to 16, according to planning documents.

Fifty-five people have supported the scheme; two have objected.

Council defends putting EV charge points in Knaresborough car park after furore

North Yorkshire Council has defended the controversial installation of electric vehicle charge points in a Knaresborough car park after traders claimed it was putting shoppers off visiting the town.

Ten of the 56 regular parking bays in the town centre Chapel Street car park were turned into electric vehicle-only spaces with charge points at the end of 2022 by the now defunct Harrogate Borough Council.

Since then, however, there have been reports of the spaces reserved for EVs laying empty, which has angered traders particularly on busy market days when it is hard to park.

A petition set up by hairdresser Kelly Teggin against the move has been signed by over 500 people. In September, Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors made several requests to North Yorkshire Council regarding the car park.

Requests included asking the council to renegotiate the contact with the charge point provider, so it can roll out the infrastructure in a more “phased” manner to enable people in non-EV cars to park in some of the bays.

Keisha Moore, senior transport planning officer at the council, responded to the petition and the requests at a meeting of Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors on Thursday.

Ms Moore referred to a report that was published ahead of the meeting but said the council’s approach to the charge points would not be changing.

The report warned any changes would “undermine” the council’s EV infrastructure roll out strategy, which aims to encourage the uptake of EVs and contribute to the council’s decarbonisation goals.

The council received a grant to install the charge points and Ms Moore added that any changes could lead to the government asking for its money back.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Knaresborough West, Matt Walker, expressed disappointment that there has been “no action” on the charge points and called on North Yorkshire Council to offer improved signage so residents better understand why they’ve been put there.

He said:

“The people of Knaresborough are crying out for a can-do council and the report goes short of understanding the issues. There’s no clear action on how we can make improvements to the parking and active travel for the town.”

Cllr Peter Lacey, who represents Harrogate Coppice Valley and Duchy for the Lib Dems and is also a member of the Knaresborough Chamber, said the council was “getting it wrong” by putting groups of charge points in the car park, rather than spreading them out across the town to encourage uptake.

The Chapel Street scheme was a pilot for the council and Ms Moore said the approach for installing charge points will differ across North Yorkshire.

She added:

“In order to get to a fair and equitable rollout across the county I don’t think we need to be putting 12 [charge points] in each and every car park.”

North Yorks Council must pay £17,000 to care home patient over language used

A local authority has been obliged to pay about £17,000 of taxpayers’ money to a residential care home patient after it was found to have failed to use the correct language when explaining her charges.

North Yorkshire Council has also been recommended to pay the patient’s son £350 “to recognise the distress and anxiety caused” by its decision to treat monetary gifts to her children and grandchildren as capital that should be included when assessing how long she should be responsible for the full cost of her care.

Who should pay for social care remains a pressing issue with the council spending £230m a year on adult social care, equating to about 40 per cent of the authority’s budget.

This year it has received £19m additional grants from the government, but the council has spent an extra £36m on adult social care services.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said it had “found fault causing injustice” and to remedy the injustice by completing a financial assessment calculating when her capital would have fallen below the £23,250 threshold under which people pay the full costs of their care.

It also recommended the council reviews the financial assessments completed for other service users over the last 12 months where gifting was not deemed to be depriving the public purse of assets.

While the Care Act 2014 states people should be able to spend the money they have saved as they wish, rules also state councils should ensure people are not rewarded for trying to avoid paying their assessed contribution.

Councils must therefore assess a person to decide whether they have intentionally deprived themselves of assets to avoid paying care fees, for example by making a lump sum payment to someone else as a gift.

The ombudsman’s report states the woman in care had previously gifted no more than £20 to her family, but in the two-and-a-half years following the sale of her property she gifted £19,500.

It is understood the officer who dealt with the assessment had been trying not to inflame a “deprivation of assets” situation and did not use those words when spelling out the reason for taking extra money from the woman.

Councillor Michael Harrison, executive member for health and adult services who is also the Conservative councillor for Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate, said:

“We accept the fault that the ombudsman identified in the language we used.

“We need to be very careful if we’re going to make an assessment that someone has deprived themselves of capital to avoid paying social care fees that we are explicit in the language we use.”

The authority undertakes an average of 6,000 financial assessments every year.

Cllr Harrison said:

“Whilst we accept the ombudsman’s findings, we did disagree that this should be a public report.

“It has cost the taxpayer around £17,000, which is disappointing. It is a costly couple of words, but we are also mindful that we are dealing with people in sensitive circumstances and circumstances that can be quite emotional where people are having to look at their relatives’ finances in quite a cold way.

“Council officers will quite rightly want to treat people with respect, with empathy and due consideration. The learning here is that must not lead us to using words that a family may find difficult if we use if it’s going to cost the taxpayer money.”

Woodland Trust backs Ripon campaign to save veteran beech tree

Campaigners fighting to save a veteran beech and 10 other mature trees from being felled on a public open green space in Ripon have received support from the Woodland Trust — the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity.

Between 12 noon and 1pm today, more than 60 men, women and children gathered with placards on Minster Gardens for a peaceful protest to raise awareness of the threat facing the trees.

They will be felled if North Yorkshire Council approves Ripon Cathedral’s application to build a two-storey annex on the gardens.

The proposed £6m development, on land which passed into North Yorkshire Council’s ownership in April when Harrogate Borough Council was abolished, would include a song school, community space, toilets, a refectory and shop, which the cathedral says will attract more than 30,000 extra visitors a year to the city.

The veteran beech tree that is under threat of being felled, with ten other trees

To coincide with today’s protest, the Woodland Trust, which has the veteran beech listed on its inventory of ancient trees, reiterated its strong opposition to the removal of the trees.

Jack Taylor, the trust’s lead campaigner for woods under threat, said in the statement:

“The proposed loss of trees within Ripon Cathedral’s Minster Gardens is of grave concern to the Woodland Trust. An irreplaceable veteran beech tree and a number of mature and notable trees would be lost to development on this site.

“Such trees play a vital role in the urban environment, enhancing aesthetic appeal, acting as carbon sinks, providing shade, improving air quality, and supporting local biodiversity. Their loss not only alters the landscape but also has far-reaching environmental and social implications.”

He added:

“The loss of veteran, notable and mature trees is entirely unacceptable and contrary to national planning policies designed to protect these important habitats. We ask that the developers work with North Yorkshire County Council and the local community to safeguard these magnificent urban trees and ensure that Ripon’s Minster Gardens remain vibrant, resilient, and ecologically rich.”

The trust lodged a formal objection to the felling of the tree with North Yorkshire Council this year, as did the planning authority’s own ecologist Dan McAndrew and arboriculturist Alan Gilleard.

What protestors said

Valerie Sheldon, who is one of the 1,800 people who have signed a petition objecting to the felling of the trees, said:

“In the 31 years that I have lived in Ripon I have enjoyed visiting this peaceful green lung. There is no other place like it in the city centre.

“The trees have been here for a very long time and must be protected.”

Simone Hurst added:

“We can’t just stand by and allow the destruction of mature trees that are important to the environment and provide a habitat for hundreds of different wildlife species.”

Steve Ellis said:

“The beech is 200 years old and according to the experts, still has plenty of life in it, Why would anybody want to cut it and other trees down to replace them with an environmentally unfriendly concrete structure.?”

The Stray Ferret approached Ripon Cathedral for comment on today’s protest, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

However, a statement from the Dean and Chapter was released in May, after a smaller protest was held on Minster Gardens. It said:

“The planning application is going through its due process, as such we don’t respond to individual comments or objections during this process.

“What I can say is that we have investigated all available options within the cathedral estate, and none of the sites were suitable for the new building. This was the opinion of a range of external experts who specialise in heritage buildings and conservation as well as architects and project management experts. The needs of all internal and external users of the proposed new building cannot be met by using any other existing chapter property and all cathedral property is currently being used to its maximum capacity.

“As we’ve previously said, the building will be an asset to the people of the city, providing much needed facilities, including a safe space for our choristers to rehearse that is fully accessible, along with public toilet facilities (including a new Changing Places toilet, suitable for those who struggle to use standard accessible toilets).

“While we understand that some people may see the loss of eleven trees as too heavy a price to pay, the development will tidy up an unloved part of the city, increase the amount of public open space and enhance the existing much-valued memorial garden. The plans we’ve submitted also include the planting of 14 new trees around the cathedral, along with a further 300 trees on land made available by a supporter of the project and will see an overall increase in biodiversity across the area.”

The planning application which was submitted to Harrogate Borough Council last December, is due to be considered by the Skipton and Ripon area constituency planning committee of North Yorkshire Council at a date and venue yet to be confirmed.

Volunteers plant 40,000 crocuses on Harrogate’s Stray

About 35 volunteers with wellies and spades planted thousands of crocuses on the Stray at West Park in Harrogate this week.

Some 40,000 crocus bulbs have been added to the Stray over the last couple of years.

The perennials, which flower in late winter and spring, have become synonymous with the 200 acres of parkland around Harrogate. It is believed there are between six and eight million of the flowers on the Stray.

This week’s effort focused on the Otley Road section, which has not been covered in recent planting schemes.

Organised by North Yorkshire Council, which manages the Stray, people from Bilton Conservation Group, Harrogate manufacturer Belzona Polymerics, the charity Open Country and individual volunteers took part in this week’s planting.

This week’s planting.

Emma, aged almost 2, explores the crocuses on West Park Stray, Harrogate

Crocuses flowering in spring this year on West Park Stray.

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What protestors said

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