north yorkshire county council Archives - Page 6 of 96

Council spending on agency staff rises sevenfold to £5m

North Yorkshire County Council is set to spend nearly £5 million on agency staff pay this year.

In a report due before the council’s overview and scrutiny committee, the authority forecasts its spend on agency workers has increased from £716,389 in 2020/21 to about £5 million in 2022/23.

Spending reached £4,282,458 in the first three quarters of this year.

Justine Brooksbank, assistant chief executive for business support at the council, said in the report:

“Agency staff are used only in circumstances when all other options have been exhausted, however increasingly scarce labours markets has resulted in the increased use of agency solutions.”

Ms Brooksbank added:

“While this is a significant increase, agency spend remains low compared to other local authorities.

“For instance, other regional council spend: Rotherham £7.47m, York £9.5m, Leeds £10m, Bradford £17m.

“The largest increases in agency use are due to increasing demand for care workers, social workers and occupational therapists in health and adult services, and for educational psychologists, social workers and children’s residential care workers in children’s services due to both recruitment challenges and increased activity.”

The report said that labour market pressures, particularly in the social care sector, had caused problems with recruiting and retaining staff – which then led to higher agency spend.

It says:

“It has been another demanding and unusual year dominated by a range of service pressures, particularly in the health and social care sector, labour market pressures causing recruitment and retention pressures and higher agency spend, covid and other causes of sickness absence.”

County council pledges to fund extra help for rising tide of domestic abuse victims

North Yorkshire County Council has pledged to fund whatever is needed to help survivors of domestic abuse after it had “failed to spend” almost half a million pounds of government funding.

Opposition councillors called on the Conservative-run council to include the £450,000 of funding in its budget for the coming financial year, saying the cost of living crisis had led to a sharp rise in misogyny in the county and that domestic abuse could not “be put under the table”.

Nevertheless, after a lengthy debate, councillors voted against including the funding for domestic abuse in its budget for the coming year and approved a 4.99% rise in council tax.

The decision will mean average band D residents in North Yorkshire will pay between £2,090 and £2,158 in council tax for the coming year, and more if their parish authority levies a charge.

Labour councillor for Falsgrave and Stepney Liz Colling told a full council meeting that domestic abuse incidents reported to North Yorkshire Police in the county had risen from 7,825 to 8,652 in 2021.

Underlining its widespread impact on communities, she added 25% of domestic abuse victims were male.

Cllr Colling said:

“I think it is time we invested in this service, we should be doing preventative work, tackling misogyny and gender-based violence in our schools and colleges and additional much-needed facilities.”

Other opposition members called for the money to be secured for a long-term domestic abuse strategy and point out how a domestic abuse refuge in Scarborough had been put on hold due to a rise in building costs.

However, executive member for stronger communities, Cllr David Chance, replied £750,000 had been set aside for such services in the coming year, alongside a £100,000 contigency, as those were the sums officers believed would be needed.

Referring to the £450,0000, he said:

“I can assure you if we need the money, we will use the money. The reason is to stop it being in the bottom line of this budget and in doing so it means we don’t have to use more contigency money.”

The meeting heard several leading Tory councillors underline that helping domestic abuse victims was a priority and that they were awaiting the results of a review into safe accommodation and domestic abuse services that had been commissioned jointly with City of York Council.

The authority’s deputy leader, Cllr Gareth Dadd, said the authority was set to receive £1.3m from government next year, and by removing the £450,000 from its spending plans it would help the council to maintain services to vulnerable people, including those for domestic abuse survivors.

He said one of the reasons the funding had not been spent was because the government had stipulated it must not be used for building-type projects.

Cllr Dadd said:

“The government are not intending in taking it back. It’s a bit of a nonsense really. We will probably end up, in reality, side-shifting this funding pot into general balances and then taking a decision…”

Kex Gill: A project seven years in the making

After being beset by delays and hiking in cost due to soaring inflation, the realignment of the A59 at Kex Gill is finally set to be built.

The project, which is North Yorkshire County Council’s most expensive and ambitious, will reroute a landslip-blighted road between Harrogate and Skipton.

For councillors and government officials, the route is a key east to west link.

As such, the money set aside – some £69 million – is justified and for ministers the deal they struck with the county council is seen as sensible financially.

Richard Holden, the roads minister in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, echoed the sentiment on a visit to Kex Gill this week.

The site on Thursday morning had yet to have a spade hit the ground, but Mr Holden was confident that in two years’ time it would be a justified expense.

He said:

“It’s an important route here between Skipton and Harrogate on a local level. But, actually, it’s more significant for the north of England really.

“I grew up in east Lancashire, the A59 goes all the way through to York. It is a really important road. It’s one which we want to see thrive and it is an important tourist route as well during the summer.

“It’s also important for heavy goods vehicles.”

(Left to right) Cllr Carl Les, leader of county council, Richard Holden, minister for roads, and Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways.

Part of the reasoning behind the reroute is the number of landslips on the road.

According to council documents published in 2021, the cost to taxpayers for maintaining the road has been “increasing over the last ten-year period”.

Between October 2000 and May 2019, five landslides were recorded at the site and the retaining wall failed four times.

In January 2016, the road was closed for eight weeks and traffic diverted through Ilkley and Otley after heavy rain caused a landslide.

Meanwhile, an instability issue in May 2018 caused road closures for several months, which council officials said led to a “complex repair scheme” being carried out at a cost of £1.42 million.

Following numerous landslips and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent on the A59, the county council decided in 2016 to do something about the problem.

How the new road will look

The reroute itself will see the existing road, which has blighted motorists for decades, returned back to moorland.

Richard Binks, head of major projects at the county council, explained that the scheme will be built in two phases.

The road to the west of Blubberhouses will be built first and include a climbing road at the junction near to Fewston reservoir car park.

The proposed reroute of the A59 at Kex Gill which has been proposed by North Yorkshire County Council.

The reroute of the A59 at Kex Gill which has been proposed by North Yorkshire County Council.

The second junction will be built at the bottom of what is now a single track road and will exit near to Kex Gill.

Mr Binks said the idea is to get the new road ready for traffic before moving cars from the existing A59 onto it.

He said:

“We want to build the new road first and then move traffic onto the new highway. Then we will focus on the old road to downgrade it and plant it up.”

Once the junctions are ready to be connected to the old road, temporary traffic lights will be put in place.

Meanwhile, as part of the realignment, new wetlands will be created near to one of the junctions and biodiversity will be returned to the moorland.

While it is unclear when the lights will be in place to connect the junctions, Mr Binks said it is expected the project will be nearing completion in summer 2025.

The council intends to enter into its contract with John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd, which is an Irish civil engineering and construction company, in April to start the scheme.

Tackling inflation

One concern over the future of the scheme is the rate of inflation in the construction industry.

Mr Holden acknowledged that soaring costs were an issue, but remained confident that funding offered by the government was “sensible”.

The scheme has faced numerous delays and, following tender returns, the estimated cost of the scheme increased by £7.2 million to £68.8 million, which the council attributed to inflation affecting constructions costs.

The project will be funded by a £56.1 million grant from the Department for Transport, with the council covering the rest from its reserves.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways at the county council, told the Stray Ferret that the authority had put “built in” funding into the contract to cover inflation.

The council has set aside £11 million to be factored into the budget to cover any issues with ground conditions or bad weather.

Cllr Duncan said:

“We have built in inflation, we know that that is a risk and that is something that is built into the contract.

“It is something that we are now hoping will not be an issue for us looking ahead.”

All major projects come with risks and barriers which need to be overcome.

But county council officials will take brief comfort that they can now finally put spades in the ground on the multi-million pound scheme before before tackling those hurdles over the next two years.

North Yorkshire bus funding ‘cannot continue in perpetuity’, warns senior councillor

A senior county councillor has warned that funding designed to save under-threat bus services in North Yorkshire “cannot continue in perpetuity”.

The Department for Transport recently announced an extension of the £2 cap on bus fares plus £80 million worth of grants to routes at risk of being reduced or scrapped.

The move comes as the 24 services from Pateley Bridge to Harrogate was recently saved until April next year.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for transport at North Yorkshire County Council, said that extra government funding was welcome and the council would look to target it at services in need of support.

However, he added that the funding would not continue in perpetuity.

He said:

“News of the £2 bus fare cap extension and additional £80million support package is very welcome. These measures will be vital to the council’s ongoing efforts to protect bus services through this difficult period.

“Exact details of how much funding we will receive is expected shortly and we will ensure this is targeted at services in need of support.

“While this extra funding will act as a critical lifeline to at-risk services at a time when passengers numbers are down and costs are up, we know funding cannot continue in perpetuity.

“Passengers remain key to the long-term viability of services, and we must use the coming months to work with operators to promote services and invest in the marketing, ticketing and infrastructure needed to encourage more people to choose the bus.

“It is only by doing this that we will have a sustainable network of services, responsive to passenger needs and free from the uncertainty that comes with long-term reliance on taxpayer funding.”

Cllr Duncan has previously warned that up to 79 services faced reduced frequency or ceasing altogether when central government funding comes to an end in March.

The comments come as the county council negotiated funding to secure the 24 bus route between Pateley Bridge and Harrogate until April next year.

Transdev, which operates the service, had initially planned to withdraw most services on the route.

‘Parents must accept responsibility for feeding their children’, says councillor

Parents must accept some responsibility for feeding their children nutritious meals, a council’s leadership has been told, amid concerns that a lack of nutrition is linked to poor behaviour and a rise in school exclusions.

North Yorkshire County Council’s deputy leader Cllr Gareth Dadd questioned what the authority was doing to promote parent responsibility as the meeting was told the council was working on a number of fronts to teach both pupils and other residents about providing wholesome meals.

At a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive, Cllr Paul Haslam, who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, said:

“I am quite convinced, anecdotally, that food is critical, and often children that are disruptive in class is a result of them not having breakfast.”

In response, executive members highlighted a range of of schemes promoted by the council, including breakfast clubs, school programmes, adult education initiatives and projects run by leisure services.

Cllr Dadd said:

“I hear a lot about breakfast clubs, I hear a lot about nutrition within the state provision in schools and the like. What work are we doing as a directorate to promote parent responsibility in terms of nutrition, in terms of feeding children with a balanced and controlled diet?

“Are we putting a similar amount of effort into that, because it seems to me, if I can make a slightly controversial statement, that the focus is always on the state, the council, everybody else to fulfil that obligation, when actually it’s a two-way street, is it not?”

Director of children’s services Stuart Carlton said he was certain of links between children’s behaviour and attainment at school and their security at home, whether that be food or family stability.

He added children were taught nutritional values at schools and the council oversaw the provision of healthy school meals and provided advice about packed lunches.

The concerns follow a group of 150 headteachers last week urging Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to increase school breakfast funding by £18m at next month’s budget, saying pupils are disrupting lessons as hunger was getting worse.

The letter warned how the national school breakfast programme would only be available to a quarter of the 10,000 schools across England that experience high levels of disadvantage.

The warning came as the Local Government Association highlighted how 215,000 eligible children were not receiving free school meals.

A meeting of NYCC’s executive had heard the county had seen almost 2,000 suspensions from schools during this academic year so far, which represented a 29% increase on the previous year.

At the same time, following a drive to promote the take-up of free school meals by the council, the number of pupils receiving food had risen, but so had the number of children who were eligible.

A Department for Education spokesman said its breakfast programme was a lifeline to families.

He added:

“We know this supports attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn, which is why we’re investing up to £30m in the programme, to help up to 2,500 schools in the most disadvantaged areas.”

Opposition likens North Yorkshire Tory council’s style to Putin’s regime

The leaders of a council which has remained under Conservative stewardship for decades have dismissed proposed changes to its constitution.

A full meeting of North Yorkshire County Council, which has been run by Tories for all but eight of the last 50 years, saw the authority likened to the Russian parliament under Vladimir Putin as opposition members vented frustration over the level of control Conservatives exert over meetings.

The meeting heard while the Conservatives only attracted 41% of the votes at last May’s elections, the political group held 100% of the posts on its decision-making executive, control of all but one of its watchdog-style scrutiny committees, and was now looking to restrict the time opposition members could ask questions.

A proposal had been put forward to allow more time for questions, with its proponents saying it would allow them to better hold the ruling administration to account.

Leader of the opposition, Councillor Bryn Griffiths, told the meeting proposals for the county council’s successor unitary authority’s constitution contained clauses that would limit the quarterly question time for the authority’s leader to ten minutes and to five minutes to other executive members.

The Liberal Democrat group leader said democracy was effectively being “guillotined”, leaving sufficient time for only two or three questions to be answered, and no time for follow-up questions.

Coun Giffiths said the Tories’ concession to publish councillors’ questions and the council’s answers on its website was welcome, but it was “not an alternative to democratic questioning and scrutiny in the council chamber and in the public forum”.

Green group leader Councillor Andy Brown told the meeting elected members had a right to have their voice heard and that should not come at the gift of the ruling group.

He urged the Conservatives to give opposition members “the chance to ask sensible questions for a reasonable time”.

Coun Brown added:

“I know nobody here wants to establish a Soviet-style parliament, but if you’re not careful this resembles very much the kind of rule that exists in the Russian parliament at the moment to curb debate. If you vote for it all you will be doing is forcing the opposition to work more closely together.”

The meeting also heard opposition calls for more of the council’s scrutiny committees to be lead by councillors who are not in the administration’s party, but Conservatives rejected claims they were “marking their own homework” and argued they had an open transparent system of scrutiny that had worked well for many years.

A move to end notices of motion to full council being referred to the council’s executive without debate was also voted down by Conservatives, who argued the proposal would lead to inordinately long and unfocused meetings.

However, the meeting heard the proposed constitution would give about 90 minutes for councillors’ questions.

The authority’s deputy leader, Councillor Gareth Dadd, said the constitution would be reviewed in a year.

He said rather than having to wait for the quarterly full council meetings to ask questions, the proposed system would enable members to ask questions immediately and get a response from executive members within ten working days.

Coun Dadd said by publishing councillors’ questions and responses to them the unitary authority would operate “a more modern way of doing business”.

Both Coun Dadd and other executive members underlined that the council chamber was about debate and holding the executive to account, rather than raisng very parochial issues, and the constitution aimed to “protect the integrity of the council chamber”.

Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue could lose parking spaces under cycle plans

Harrogate’s Victoria Avenue could lose a number of parking spaces and its central refuges as part of plans to create a cycleway.

North Yorkshire County Council this week identified Victoria Avenue as its priority cycling scheme of three in the pipeline. The others are on the A59 Harrogate Road at Knaresborough, and in Richmond.

Victoria Avenue would see segregated cycle lanes 1.5 metres wide and buffer zones created on both sides of the avenue.

The West Park junction and kerb line would be remodelled to improve the crossing and new traffic lights installed. The pedestrian crossing would also be upgraded and pay and display meters would be removed or relocated.

A report to councillors says “some existing parking and central refuges” would be removed but doesn’t specify how many. When the Stray Ferret has asked the council for the number, a spokesperson said:

“The designs of the Victoria Avenue scheme are still to be finalised, so the reduction in parking spaces is yet to be confirmed.”

Victoria Avenue

The Victoria Avenue scheme, which is part of the council’s plans to encourage active travel, is budgeted to cost £1.57m and is likely to go ahead because funding is already secured.

The council has £492,000 from tranche two of the Department for Transport’s active travel fund remaining. This, along with £1.08 million the DfT has awarded in tranche four, will cover the cost.

The council has also been invited to bid for an additional £2.16 million and whether the schemes in Knaresborough and Richmond proceed will largely depend on this.

Council leader refuses to rule out staff redundancies with North Yorkshire Council

North Yorkshire County Council leader Carl Les has refused to rule out future staff redundancies after the new council is created in April.

In just over a month, the county’s seven district councils and North Yorkshire County Council will be replaced by a new unitary authority called North Yorkshire Council to run services across the county, which will also be led by the Conservative Cllr Les.

A key argument for local government reorganisation was that it would save the taxpayer money but some district councils have faced criticism from the Taxpayers’ Alliance and union officials for offering outgoing chief executives six-figure redundancy packages.

Hambleton District Council and Selby District Council agreed packages worth £225,000 and £210,000 for its outgoing chief executives, Justin Ives and Janet Waggott, respectively.

At a full meeting of North Yorkshire County Council on Wednesday in Northallerton, Cllr Andy Brown, Green Party member for the Aire Valley division, asked Cllr Les if he could offer assurances that there would not be similar redundancy payments as a result of the move to the new authority.

In response, Cllr Les said:

“I can’t give an assurance that there won’t be further redundancies for posts with the new council because the council will always be looking for efficiencies.”

He added:

“I can assure that those redundancy processes will be fair both to employee and taxpayer.”

The vast majority of staff working for the district councils and North Yorkshire County Council will transfer over to the North Yorkshire Council under TUPE terms on April 1.

David Houlgate, Harrogate branch secretary at local government union Unison, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service after today’s meeting that Unison does not expect there to be compulsory redundancies with the new council but there may be voluntary ones.

He added:

“We’d look at voluntary redundancies which may in some instances be mutually beneficial for our members and taxpayers but in reality the staffing issue in local government is around recruitment not over-staffing.”

North Yorkshire’s Levelling Up failure blamed on ‘too many bids for too small a pot’

North Yorkshire County Council‘s leader has blamed the county’s failure in securing Levelling Up funding on “too many bids” across the country for “too small a pot”.

Last month the government revealed the winners of the second Levelling Up Fund round that saw £2.1bn up for grabs.

Several district councils in the county made bids for funding, including £20m to redevelop Harrogate Convention Centre. North Yorkshire County Council also submitted a £39.3m bid to upgrade Thirsk, Seamer and Scarborough stations.

In total, bids worth £118.4m were made for projects in the county but only Richmondshire District Council received funding, which will see £19m spent regenerating Catterick town centre in prime minister Rishi Sunak’s constituency.

At a full meeting of the county council in Northallerton this week, Cllr Bryn Griffiths, Liberal Democrat member for Stokesley division, asked council leader Carl Les why most of the bids in North Yorkshire had failed.

He said:

“We don’t seem to be very good at obtaining Levelling Up money, do we? Do we know why? What are the reasons? Are our processes wrong or is central government not listening to us?”

Cllr Lindsay Burr, independent member for the Malton division, said the rejections were both “concerning and disappointing” for the county. She added:

“Levelling Up was announced with great fanfare and the majority of residents felt it was a given that Yorkshire would be levelled up. Could our leader press central government to ensure Yorkshire can get its fair share?”

‘Too small a pot’

Cllr Les said NYCC had received feedback from government on why bids failed but added that he believes not enough money was available for all the bids to be successful. He said:

“We do ask civil servants for feedback and we get that. The issue with the fund was there was too many bids for too small a pot.

“I use my powers to urge government to give us more in North Yorkshire, I do that all the time but other leaders around the country do that as well. We’ll always bang the drum for North Yorkshire and try to get our fair share.”

During the first two rounds of the Levelling Up Fund, 834 bids were submitted but only 216 were successful.

The government scored each bid out of 100 with criteria including deliverability and the characteristics of each place.

It will be opening a third round of funding with a further £1bn available to councils.

Earlier this month, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed that Harrogate Borough Council spent £45,000 on consultants to help prepare its failed Levelling Up bid.

Liberal Democrat member for the Kingsley division, Cllr Chris Aldred, asked Cllr Les how much was spent in total in North Yorkshire for consultants to help with bids.

Cllr Les promised to answer his question before the district councils are abolished in just over a month.

Minister ‘open’ to inflation funding discussions for A59 Kex Gill

Ministers are open to discussions over funding should a major realignment for the A59 at Kex Gill hit further inflationary pressures.

Richard Holden, the minister for roads, told the Stray Ferret that he believed the government had struck a “sensible deal” with North Yorkshire County Council for the £69 million scheme.

Mr Holden visited the Kex Gill site along with officials from the county council this morning.

It comes as the Department for Transport gave the final go-ahead for the project today, which will see the road rerouted.

The move comes as the project has been beset by delays and mounting costs due to inflation.

However, work now look sets to start in April on the scheme — three months after the council’s most recent anticipated start date.

When asked if the government would step in should the project face rising costs, Mr Holden said:

“We have done a sensible deal with them [the council], we did not want to sign anything before it was all ready.

“Obviously, there have been inflationary pressures across construction particularly the last few years.

“I hope we don’t need to get to that point, but I think we have got a good project team here who are going to keep costs under control working with National Highways.

“I think we are in a good place, but obviously discussions are always open when it comes to money.”

The project will be funded by a £56.1 million grant from the Department for Transport, with the council covering the rest from its reserves.

A further £11 million has been factored into the budget to cover any issues with ground conditions or bad weather.

The Kex Gill realignment site, which is set for construction.

Irish civil engineering and construction firm John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd has been appointed to build the road.

Speaking following the announcement, Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways, said:

“This is really the culmination of seven years worth of work to get to this stage.

“It’s very welcome that we are now able to proceed.”

The A59 at Kex Gill, near Blubberhouses, is the main route between Harrogate and Skipton. Since 2000, the route has been closed 12 times following landslips.

The estimated completion date for the scheme is May 2025.

Pictured above (left to right) council leader Cllr Carl Les, minister for roads Richard Holden, and Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways.

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How the new road will look

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Tackling inflation

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‘Too small a pot’

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