Explained: What happens to Harrogate taxis after devolution?

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

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

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

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

Who currently licences taxis?

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

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

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

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

Who sets the fares?

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

The council reviews fares for taxis annually.

What will happen from April?

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

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

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

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

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

What about fares?

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

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

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Government overlooks Harrogate district for coronation big screens

The government is to spend more than £1 million showing the coronation on big screens across the country — but the Harrogate district is not included.

Ministers revealed today a dozen sites in Yorkshire and Humber will get big screens to show the coronation of the King and the Queen Consort on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. Not a single one is in North Yorkshire.

The closest one to the Harrogate district will be at Millennium Square in Leeds.

Although the selection of Leeds and other major cities, including Sheffield, Bradford and Hull, is not unexpected, some smaller places such as Dewsbury and Halifax are on the list while the likes of Harrogate and Ripon are not.

The decision to choose five places in West Yorkshire — Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Leeds — and not a single one in North Yorkshire, England’s largest county, may raise eyebrows particularly as many of the places chosen are close to each other.

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The Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced the locations today.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said:

The Coronation will be a magical moment that brings people together to celebrate the best of Britain over a special weekend in May.

These big screens, in major locations in towns and cities in the four nations of the UK, will make it easier for everyone to take part and have a memorable experience to mark this exciting and historic event.

Big screens location in Yorkshire and Humber

Concern over North Yorkshire Police’s ability to keep people safe, say inspectors

Inspectors have raised concern over North Yorkshire Police’s ability to keep people safe and reduce crime.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services undertook an inspection of the force in October 2022 for its effectiveness and efficiency.

The report, published today, rated the police as inadequate in good use of its resources.

Meanwhile, the force was rated as requires improvement for responding to the public, investigating crime, protecting vulnerable people and developing a positive workplace.

However, it was assessed as adequate for preventing crime and managing offenders. It was rated as good for treatment of the public.

Concern over police performance

In his report, Roy Wilsher, inspector of constabulary, raised concern over how the force kept people safe and reduced crime.

In particular, he said senior leaders did not have enough oversight of human resources and IT or of the “impact that failures in these areas have had on policing services”.

Mr Wilsher said the force did not have enough trained detectives and pointed out there was  “only a limited plan to address this”.

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He added that the force should improve the speed with which it answers and responds to emergency and priority calls.

North Yorkshire Police force control room

The speed of responding to 999 calls was criticised.

However, Mr Wilsher said that North Yorkshire Police worked well with other organisations to safeguard vulnerable people.

He said:

“I have concerns about the performance of North Yorkshire Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime. In particular, I have serious concerns about its strategic planning and organisational management.

“Senior leaders in the force need to ensure they have effective oversight of its enabling services, such as IT and HR functions. Failures in these areas impact the service the force provides.

“North Yorkshire Police also needs to improve the speed with which it answers and responds to emergency calls. The force is well below the national standard, with only 41.9 percent of 999 calls being answered within 10 seconds.

“However, we did find that the force works well with partner organisations to safeguard vulnerable people. We found good examples of the force working with other organisations to divert young people away from offending and to reduce the vulnerability of people who may become victims of crime.

“Although I have concerns about corporate processes, I am pleased that the force has accepted our findings and is engaging with us and other partner organisations to ensure improvements are made. I remain in regular contact with the chief constable and will monitor the force’s progress towards addressing the cause of concern and areas of improvement I have established.”

In response, Lisa Winward, chief constable at North Yorkshire Police, said the force had recently approved a £1.8 million investment in its force control room to help tackle call response times.

She said:

“The report highlights a number of areas that the force delivers well but also reports on a significant number of areas that require improvement. A number of these relate to the corporate capacity and capability of the organisation linked to workforce planning, governance, performance management, financial planning, and the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our shared enabling services.

“They told us that while the right actions might be taking place on the ground by our people, they were not able to find sufficient evidence of how this was directed and overseen through our governance structure.

“The inspectors told us that every single person they spoke to was committed, fully engaged in their work and doing a really good job in difficult circumstances. They told us that our people take pride in being part of North Yorkshire Police and that there is a strong sense of belonging in the force.

“Since we received the hot debrief from HMICFRS in October 2022, we have been working at a pace to address the issues that they have raised so we can focus on our core responsibilities to the public.

“The Organisational Improvement Plan that we have put in place focuses on achieving the standards required to deliver a good service to our communities. The force has been through a significant period of change since our last inspection in 2018, and in particular to our corporate services where our inadequate grading has been identified. We are investing heavily to make these changes.”

Commissioner ‘more than disappointed’

Zoe Metcalfe

Zoe Metcalfe

Meanwhile, Zoe Metcalfe, the Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said she expected to see “immediate change” in police response to call times after approving a £1.8 million investment in the force control room.

She added that she was “more than disappointed” with other findings in the inspector’s report.

She said:

“I’m more than disappointed with other findings in the report and I’m sure members of the public will be too. It’s unacceptable that North Yorkshire Police requires improvement in multiple areas, in particular its strategic planning, organisational management and value for money – clearly more needs to be done and is being done as I continue to hold the chief constable to account. Our police force needs to do significantly better.

“I’m confident that the chief constable is overseeing significant transformation work within North Yorkshire Police to improve these outcomes, and that since October 2022 has implemented a trusted organisational improvement plan that can be effective at pace.”

North Yorkshire Police urged to start recording ‘high priority’ wildlife crime

North Yorkshire Police has been urged to start recording acts which breach legislation governing the protection of wild animals and plants.

Wildlife crimes, including badger baiting and hare coursing, emerged as among the five leading concerns of North Yorkshire residents following a public consultation over the statutory police and crime plan to 2025.

A meeting of North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel heard despite repeated requests by the watchdog for figures to illustrate how wildlife offenders were being tackled, such details had not been made available.

In response to the public identifying wildlife crime as a priority, the panel announced last July that it would be examining progress on tackling such offences in the county, and during several subsequent meetings called for evidence to show police action.

North Yorkshire has repeatedly been identified by national organisations as having among the worst records for bird of prey persecution.

Nature charity RSPB says much of the persecution is linked directly to driven grouse shooting and has called for the industry to be regulated and in 2020 found North Yorkshire had topped the UK raptor persecution table for the seventh year in a row.

The panel meeting at County Hall in Northallerton heard raptor persecution had been linked to rogue shooting estates and gamekeepers. 

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Concerns have previously been expressed by the panel that due to the difficulty of investigating and successfully prosecuting wildlife crimes “very few” offenders were being brought to justice.

The panel’s deputy chairman, Cllr Peter Wilkinson said: 

“We are still getting bad publicity nationally, where we might not be the worst geographical area, but we’re pretty high up there.”

When asked if she was happy with progress made over tackling wildlife crime and the number of people being taken to court, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe stopped short of either criticising or praising police action.

She said: 

“I would like to see more progress, but I think we have made significant progress going forward, but obviously we would want those prosecutions to increase.”

Ms Metcalfe did not indicate what she had based her assessment of police performance on, but the meeting heard as there were “no specific wildlife crime offences”, police would face an onerous task of analysing crime reports to find “indicators” of offences against wild animals or plants.

The commissioner told the panel she would keep “a watching brief” over wildlife crime.

Cllr Tim Grogan, a former police officer, said while he did not expect the force to use vast amounts of resources trawling back through its records to identify wildlife offences, it should be simple for officers to start recording wildlife crimes from April 1.

He said: 

“I don’t think it’s beyond the wit of man to record wildlife crime. If that’s too difficult I’m sad because it’s what my residents asked for.”

Children in North Yorkshire face two-year wait for mental disorder assessment

Local children face waits of up to two years after being referred by a doctor for autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, a meeting has heard.

North Yorkshire’s scrutiny of health committee heard there were 377 children currently waiting for an autism spectrum disorder assessment, of which 27 had been waiting more than 12 months.

Councillors were told a further 400 children had been waiting for a ADHD assessment, 76 of which have been waiting for more than a year.

The figures from Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust follow it revealing three months ago that the number of children in contact with its Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in York had jumped by more than 40 per cent over the previous two years.

A Healthwatch report into the service showed young people are facing delays, lost paperwork and other issues when trying to get support.

Brian Cranna, care group director at the health trust, told the scrutiny committee meeting at County Hall in Northallerton the last 12 months had seen 9,000 referrals into CAMHS across North Yorkshire and York.

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He said while 5,000 children were active referrals or currently receiving interventions, the service was facing challenges over assessing developmental disorders.

Mr Canna said the length of wait depended on which part of North Yorkshire a child lived in, adding It could be up to two years for an assessment.

Community mental health teams

The meeting heard the trust had created mental health teams working in schools to prevent the need to access specialist services, and referrals to them were being seen within four weeks.

He added while people could expect to be seen by community mental health teams within eight weeks of routine referral, the majority of children and young people were being seen within 28 days.

Mr Canna underlined 86% of children referred to the crisis team were being seen within four hours.

However, the meeting heard the delays were being exacerbated by a struggle to recruit staff, ranging from consultant psychiatrists and psychologists to administrative staff.

He said raised public expectations of the service had increased the pressure on staff.

He added: 

“People expect a better level of care. They expect a level of support that’s tailored to their individual needs and that increases the demand on the services.”

Mr Canna said staffing pressures varied across the county. 

He said Harrogate had a range of healthcare providers who people living there could work for instead, while it had proved difficult to attract people to move to Scarborough.

Nevertheless, he said the trust was examining what it could do to attract people into the area and following some success recruiting staff for its eating disorders team the trust was hopeful that “this positive trajectory” would continue.

He said: 

“Maintaining staff wellbeing in a pressured environment is a significant challenge for us and a challenge we are responding to.”

Harrogate to be second fastest growing place in Yorkshire, says North Yorkshire Council CEO

Harrogate is forecast to be the second fastest growing town in Yorkshire this year, says the new chief executive of North Yorkshire Council.

Richard Flinton, who is set to oversee devolution in the county from April 1, was the keynote speaker at the inaugural Stray Ferret Business Awards on Thursday.

Mr Flinton told the ceremony at Pavilions of Harrogate that supporting local business would be a major part of the new council’s agenda.

He said:

“Supporting business will be a really big part of the council.

“I have got great admiration for the wealth creators, the entrepreneurs and the talented individuals in this room.”

Mr Flinton will oversee the biggest reorganisation of local government in North Yorkshire since 1974.

The move will see seven district councils, including Harrogate Borough Council, and the county council scrapped to make way for one unitary authority.

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Mr Flinton, who is also involved with York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said he wanted to see the new council work closely with the private sector.

He said:

“Our shared aim has got to be to try and create more jobs and wealth.

“I know that growing your businesses is what creates those jobs and that wealth. One of our roles in the public sector is to be able support you through infrastructure, through making sure people have got the right skills and work together to make sure we grow our economy.”

‘A massive opportunity’

Mr Flinton said Harrogate was “an incredibly important” part of the economy of North Yorkshire, adding:

“Ernst and Young are forecasting that Harrogate will be the second fastest growing part of the whole of Yorkshire this year, just behind the city of Leeds.”

He added that there was a “massive opportunity” for Harrogate to be one of the most vibrant towns in the north of England.

The Stray Ferret Business Awards showcased a variety of talent from across the area, and 11 finalists were crowned the winners of their categories.

The ceremony was attended by nearly 400 guests and celebrated the success of businesses from across the district.

You can read more about the winners of the awards here.

Stray Views: North Yorkshire rural transport ‘desperately inefficient’

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Hats off to North Yorkshire County Council for being open about the cost of Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) schemes. The reason that DRT is expensive in rural areas is because it is desperately inefficient.

DRT is supposed to be the answer where demand for timetabled services has dropped to uneconomic levels. But DRT actually makes the problem worse – if the only timetabled bus leaves at 10.30, it may well carry me (who would prefer to leave at 09.30) and my neighbour (who might prefer to leave at 11.30). 

But DRT asks us each when we want to travel, and if we are both lucky enough to bag a ride, then the bus will come to our village twice, carrying just one of us each time. And because the schedule is built in random order, as requests come in, the vehicles end up with wasteful gaps when there isn’t enough time to fit in an extra trip, and lots of “dead mileage” as the vehicles zoom around empty from one drop off to the next pickup.

I live in a part of rural Derbyshire that is likely to lose timetabled services soon, and I wanted to see if my fears were borne out by data. Finding no published information on loadings for DRT buses, I made a FOI request to NYCC for detailed information on the Yorbus service around Ripon. 

The data, for February, March and April 2022 shows the two minibuses carrying passengers for just a third of their operating time and when they did have passengers, it was rarely more than three. Normal taxis could have been used instead (with far lower costs and emissions) for over 97% of the operating hours. These figures will have improved, a bit, as ridership has increased in the last year, but Yorbus will still be running as what is in effect a badly-scheduled taxi service using vastly oversized vehicles.

Even if you don’t worry about the cost, DRT isn’t even a good replacement for a timetabled service. The marketing materials may talk about flexibility, but for the user that means uncertainty.

NYCC have reported that Yorbus has been unable to meet about 20% of the requests for a ride. 

Failure may be OK if you were planning to go shopping: perhaps you will be luckier tomorrow. But what if you had wanted to use Yorbus to get to work? Or to an appointment with a hospital consultant?

John Geddes, Winster, Derbyshire

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‘Disgust’ at North Yorkshire County Council view

I read with disgust but no real surprise in the Stray Ferret the view of the North Yorkshire Tory council expressed by the opposition concerning the behaviour of the council. 

They describe the behaviour as something like a “Putinesque regime” amongst other descriptors. They then go on to describe actions that are nothing short of abuses of power.

It irks me that this dire council has managed to wriggle out of it’s responsibility to face elections till 2027 as a result of the re-organisation of local government.

Let’s face it, it is likely that the forthcoming local elections are likely to see the Tories, deservedly, wiped off the the face of the electoral map in much of the country. North Yorkshire however remains lumbered with this dismal bunch for another four years.

This thoroughly depressing and damaging state of affairs should not be allowed to stand.

Nick Hudson, Harrogate

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Ripon ex-detective named as new deputy lieutenant for North Yorkshire

A Ripon man who served for more than 30 years as a detective with the Metropolitan Police and the National Crime Squad has been named as one of North Yorkshire’s four new deputy lieutenants. 

Shafquat “Tom” Ali led complex investigations into serious and organised crime, corruption and homicide as well as sensitive inquiries in both the UK and abroad.  

Mr Ali, who lives close to Ripon with his wife, Sarah, and their three children, was appointed by the lord-lieutenant of North Yorkshire, Jo Ropner, who is the king’s representative in the county.

The deputy lieutenants provide specialist local knowledge to the lord-lieutenant, helping her to perform her duties and giving her advice to help foster closer links with the community. 

The other new deputy lieutenants are: Rebecca Cottrell, the Harrogate-born wife of the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell; Jan Garrill, the chief executive of the Two Ridings Community Foundation; and Dr Bill Scott, the chief executive of Middlesbrough-based engineering company Wilton Universal Group. 

Mr Ali’s work has taken him from investigating major crime gangs on the streets of London to hostile locations in Libya. He has retired as a detective chief inspector, but still assists the Metropolitan Police in a consultancy role, as well as undertaking inquiries for other police services, such as the Police Service of Northern Ireland to re-investigate paramilitary murders.  

He has also helped the British overseas territory of Turks and Caicos, following a spike in organised crime-related homicides. 

Ms Cottrell, who was born in Harrogate and grew up in Essex, is a trained potter, making and selling pots and teaching ceramics, as well as working in schools supporting children with learning difficulties.

She also supports her husband’s ministry across the Diocese of York and has been a member of the organising group of two Lambeth Conferences, the worldwide gatherings of Anglican bishops and their spouses, which are held every decade.

Mrs Ropner, who has been Lord-Lieutenant for North Yorkshire since 2018, said:

“The new deputy lieutenants bring a great deal of experience and expertise and will play a vital role in helping build even closer links with the community. 

“They provide a breadth of knowledge that will prove to be invaluable in aiding the work of the lord lieutenant’s office, and it is a privilege to announce their appointments.” 

There are now 38 deputy lieutenants across the North Yorkshire lieutenancy’s area, who have been appointed from sectors including academia, the military, business, the judiciary, farming and the charity and voluntary sector. 

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Bid begins to create new North Yorkshire tourism body

The incoming North Yorkshire Council is to bid to government for accreditation to create a new countywide tourism body.

The authority intends to apply to become a Local Visitor Economy Partnership — which will replace Destination Management Organisations following a review by ministers.

The new body would be responsible for promoting tourism in North Yorkshire and attracting events.

David Caulfield, assistant director for tourism and economic development at North Yorkshire Council, said the new organisation would also help to form a “Yorkshire-wide” tourism strategy.

He said:

“There may be four, or five, of these which eventually form a Yorkshire-wide approach. These LVEPs must be strong private/public sector partnerships and will need to follow the new national process to be eligible for any government funding.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us in North Yorkshire to play to our strengths, while maintaining a strong regional identity at the same time. It will also be one of the key aspects of the new council’s economic strategy.

“All of the current destination management organisations across North Yorkshire are already working closely on this project, pooling their knowledge and expertise to ensure we have the strongest possible proposal.”

The council intends to hire consultants at a cost of £20,000 to help support the bid.

Mr Caulfield said this would form a “small part” of the bid, with the majority of the work being carried out in-house.

Questions over Destination Harrogate

The move towards creating a county-wide tourism organisation raises further questions about the future of Destination Harrogate, the current Destination Management Organisation tourism organisation for the district run by Harrogate Borough Council, which is being abolished in four weeks.

Paula Lorimer, director of Harrogate Convention Centre, told a council meeting last month the government review would likely mean only destination management organisations from cities or large regions will be able to receive funding from central government.

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She suggested Harrogate would have to amalgamate into a wider, yet-to-be created North Yorkshire destination management organisation to qualify for the funding.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed last month that Harrogate Borough Council spent £2,224,000 on Destination Harrogate in its first year operating — almost a million pounds more than budgeted.

Borough council chief executive Wallace Sampson told councillors the new authority could look to “identify savings” with Destination Harrogate after it is handed control of the organisation.

He added:

“[Destination Harrogate] is a discretionary service and against the background of a challenging financial environment for the new council, every discretionary service will be subject to financial scrutiny.”

Mr Sampson warned of the possible pitfalls of Destination Harrogate being merged into a county-wide tourism body, which he suggested could dilute the focus on individual places.

He said:

“From a Harrogate point of view we have Destination Harrogate that has a really strong focus on place branding and marketing and that helps to attract visitors. 

“The key question will be — can you retain the focus on individual places in North Yorkshire?  It’s something the new council will have to grapple with.”

Councillor calls for housebuilding in Harrogate to be paused

A councillor has called for a pause in housebuilding in Harrogate while work on a new local plan for the whole of North Yorkshire is drawn up.

In December, members of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive approved the creation of a new local plan, which must be finalised within five years of North Yorkshire Council being formed on April 1.

It will identify land that can be developed and will replace the seven local plans that are currently used by the soon-to-be-abolished district and borough councils.

This includes Harrogate Borough Council’s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which was adopted in 2020 and says over 13,000 homes can be built between 2014-2035. The council has said the document will guide planning decisions until the new local plan is created.

Harrogate’s local plan has led to large new housing developments being built in almost every corner of the district. Last month, approval was given to 162 more homes on Kingsley Drive in Harrogate and 1,300 homes at Clotherholme in Ripon.

But councillors have heard repeated concerns about whether the district’s roads, schools and GP practices can cope with the increase in housing.

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The thorny issue came up at a full meeting of North Yorkshire County Council on Friday.

Statistics released in the government’s last Housing Delivery Test revealed 1,641 homes — 266% above target — were built in the district between 2018 and 2021.

This led Liberal Democrat councillor for the High Harrogate and Kingsley division, Chris Aldred, to ask North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative executive member for planning for growth, Simon Myers, if the new council would consider pausing new applications in areas where these government targets are being met.

He said:

“There are areas within the county where we’re well ahead of scheduled housing delivery targets. In Harrogate we are 200% over-target according to the government’s own statistics.

“While we’re developing a new local plan for the county, could you consider in areas where we are well ahead of delivery, we actually pause the application process so we don’t get any houses in areas where we might not have done when we’ve got the new local plan.”

The new council will create six new planning committees to oversee decisions across parliamentary constituency areas, such as Harrogate and Knaresborough and Skipton and Ripon.

They will be set up with councillors from across the political spectrum voting on whether significant planning applications go ahead.

‘Misleading’ figure

After the meeting, Cllr Myers told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the 200% figure was misleading. He said:

“Essentially, Harrogate has only just caught up with its own housing targets. It isn’t 200% over. The development is all in accordance with the local plan and to halt development would put Harrogate at risk of the plan being seen as out of date and open the possibility of speculative development. And of course with development we hope to deliver affordable housing which is sorely needed in every part of the county.

“The figure of 200% ‘over delivery’ was published in the government’s housing delivery test calculation pre-adoption of the Harrogate local plan. This was based on delivery against the standard methodology figure that does reflect an accurate picture of need. If you look at delivery against the actual plan-target, the figure is lower.

“In summary, the 200% figure is misleading and the higher-than-plan-target delivery rates should not be cause for alarm as they reflect positive progress on addressing a significant shortfall and reflect a planned trajectory.”