North Yorkshire Archives - Page 33 of 61

Councillors brand North Yorkshire devolution deal ‘York-centric’

Councils have pushed forward a move to transfer some central government powers to York and North Yorkshire, despite cross-party concerns York’s residents will gain more than the county’s.

Less than 24 hours after City of York Council gave its seal of approval to sending the results of a public consultation over a proposed devolution deal for the city and North Yorkshire, the majority of councillors on its Northallerton-based counterpart followed suit.

While the deal seeks to fuse the futures of the two councils, numerous North Yorkshire councillors underlined their view that York’s 200,000 residents would be the winners in a mayoral combined authority with just two councillors from each authority.

During a lengthy debate on the devolution deal during a full meeting of North Yorkshire County Council, numerous councillors attacked proposals to hand a disproportionate amount of power to York.

Many councillors agreed that the deal was far from perfect, but there was little option than to agree to it if the area wanted extra money from the government.

The authority’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said the deal on the table was “just the start” of negotiations with the government to hand more decision-making powers and funds directly to the area.

He said:

“We have got to move on. The past is the past, this is the future. This is how government prefers to work. And if we negate that we are going to lose out yet again.”

Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Les said the deal would help avoid bidding wars, by moving decision-making out of Whitehall to York and Northallerton, there would also be safeguards in place on the mayoral combined authority to protect the interests of both councils’ populations.

However, opposition councillors said the deal would lead to decision-making becoming more concentrated in a small group of unelected people on the combined authority.

Green group leader Cllr Andy Brown said the authority was being offered “crumbs not substance” following decades of the government stripping back funding for County Hall, so the deal was “more propaganda than reality”.

Cllr Stuart Parsons, Independents group leader, said of the £18m extra annual government funding the deal would bring, up to £4m would be spent on staffing the mayor’s office.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths said the mayor’s office would be “yet another layer of bureaucracy to be funded by the poor taxpayers”.

Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said devolution would happen whether people in North Yorkshire wanted it or not, while Craven District Council leader Richard Foster said branded the deal was “York-centric”.

Ripon Cllr Andrew Williams said York was a “basket case of a council that the poor residents in York have to suffer” and that many people in York would like to see it abolished and being a part of a wider North Yorkshire.

He told the meeting:

“It is a local authority, quite frankly, which fails the people of York every day it opens its doors for business.”

Seamer division member Cllr Heather Phillips was among few councillors who expressed any solidarity with York.

She said:

“York, we welcome you. We want to work with you and we’ll be a better North Yorkshire when we do that.”

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…”

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.”

Tree planted at Starbeck care home as covid living memorial

A tree has been planted at a care home in Starbeck as a living memorial to those who suffered or lost their lives to covid.

The tree, which is one of eight making up a new North Yorkshire tree trail, was planted on Monday at county council-run care home, Station View, by Councillor Michael Harrison, North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for health and adult services.

The tree in Starbeck was the fourth of eight being planted by the council as part of its tree trail.

It follows planting ceremonies at County Hall in Northallerton, the Meadowfields Extra Care housing scheme in Thirsk, and the Fernbank Court Extra Care scheme in Selby.

Further ceremonies will be held at the county council’s Aireville Nurseries in Skipton, Sycamore Hall in Bainbridge, as well as Scarborough’s Cedear Court Extra Care complex and Deansfield Court Extra Care in Norton, Malton.

Cllr Harrison said:

“The covid-19 pandemic had tragic consequences for many people in North Yorkshire and it is important that we remember that loss, while also recognising the efforts of many people who worked to keep people safe.

“This tree trail will provide a permanent living memorial where local residents will be able to reflect on their experiences, if they so wish, and also to act as reminder of the way our communities pulled together to help each other.”

According to the latest data from the government, more than 1,700 people have lost their lives linked to the covid pandemic in North Yorkshire.

How will the Masham by-election defeat affect North Yorkshire Conservatives?

The Conservatives in North Yorkshire suffered a blow this week after losing the Masham and Fountains by-election.

Liberal Democrat Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, the Countess of Swinton, took the North Yorkshire County Council seat which had previously been held by long-serving Conservative Margaret Atkinson.

It’s the latest defeat for the local Tories, who failed to win a majority in Harrogate and Knaresborough in last May’s local election.

That meant the Lib Dems seized control of the county council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee but the Conservatives retained overall control across the county.

But this week’s loss has reduced the Tories’ majority to just two and raised the prospect of the party losing overall control of the county for the first time in over 20 years.

A further dent in the Tories’ majority

In just eight weeks time, the upcoming North Yorkshire Council will take over local government in the county. Councillors will transfer from North Yorkshire County Council and serve for four more years.

The swing in power has been dramatic since May last year.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, the Liberal Democrats now hold 11 seats compared to two just nine months ago following this week’s election in Masham.

How the make-up of North Yorkshire County Council looked prior to the by-election.

The Masham result was particularly pertinent given that the Conservatives had won the seat in the May 2022 elections with 1,076 votes.

This week’s by-election was a two-horse race after the opposition Green Party pulled out of the contest in an effort to bolster the Lib Dems’ chances.

Overall, the Conservatives are the largest party with 46 seats on the council with opposition parties taking up 44.

The dent in the majority means the party are just one by-election away from losing overall power.

The loss of overall control would have implications for major decisions. Should the council be required to pass a tough budget with far reaching cuts or hike in council tax, it could result in a tight vote.

The make-up of the council could also lead to close votes on politically difficult topics, such as fracking.

However, such a controversial topics may also see other councillors from different political parties vote against their own party line.

‘You can promise the earth in opposition’

While the defeat may leave the Conservatives in a tough position on paper, local councillors are upbeat about the situation.

Cllr Nick Brown, who sits as a Conservative in the Wathvale and Bishop Monkton division, told the Stray Ferret that the party respected the electorate’s decision and that Tory councillors would continue to work for constituents.

He said the Liberal Democrats would find it “difficult” to put words into action.

Cllr Brown said:

“The opposition spoke a lot and talked a lot. But putting things into action would be very difficult.

“When you are in opposition, you can promise the earth.”

He added that he hoped the result was a “blip” for the local party.

He said:

“We live in a democracy and people can put their names forward.

“The electorate has spoken, sadly not in our favour. I hope this is a little blip on the horizon.”

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have taken the result in their stride.

Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough parliamentary constituency, said the result “put the Tories on notice”.

He said:

“A fantastic result and win in what once was true blue North Yorkshire.

“It’s clear that the public, and the Lib Dems, are well and truly putting the Conservatives on notice in what issupposed to be their heartlands.”

Meanwhile, Green party Cllr Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn division, said it was not straight forward in opposing the Conservatives despite their slim majority.

He said:

“It’s not clear cut. We have to get all the opposition on the same side and get one Conservative.

“We have also got to make sure that everyone is there.”

Cllr Warneken added that he was prepared to work with any party and was not bound by “political dogma”.

“As an opposition councillor, I will work with everybody.”

‘Widespread’ support for North Yorkshire devolution plans questioned

North Yorkshire County Council has been urged to press on with its devolution plan amid claims it had received widespread public support, despite almost half of respondents to its consultation over the proposed governance change declining to support it.

The council’s Conservative-run executive will next Tuesday be asked to consider pressing ahead with plans to create a devolved government for the county and York, which it claims will bring “a host of benefits”, including new jobs, more affordable housing and measures to tackle climate change.

The council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said:

“To have so many people taking part in the public engagement is very welcome, as it shows the interest that is there on the proposed devolution deal.

“The responses will be carefully considered by the county council before a decision is taken to submit the results of the engagement to the government.”

Ahead of the meeting the authority issued a press release highlighting “widespread support” for its proposals, however a council report to the executive underlines some 46% cent of respondents to the consultation did not support the planned governance arrangements.

Leader of the opposition Independents group on the authority, Cllr Stuart Parsons, said:

“I find it astounding that the council believes the support for its devolution proposals is widespread.

“I would have thought if they had got 60 to 70% support they could claim that is widespread, but at the moment it sounds like it is thinly spread.”

An officer’s report to the executive recommends it endorses sending the consultation’s results to ministers to open the way for a combined authority, overseen by an elected mayor, which is scheduled to be established later this year.

Organisations ranging from the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the York to the Yorkshire Food, Farming and Rural Network said they recognised the proposed combined authority was a tried and tested way of building strong local leadership with new powers.

Of the 583 people who provided comments that supported the proposed governance arrangements, numerous people raised concerns over increased bureaucracy.

However, others said the proposal would result in an increase in democratic accountability, decentralising decision-making in York and North Yorkshire, enabling councils to “work together as one instead of piecemeal” and magnify the area’s voice on the national stage.

Supporters of the proposed deal said York and North Yorkshire could not compete for government funding with big cities in isolation and the proposed mayoral combined authority would offer both a stronger voice and routes to new and enhanced funding.

Nevertheless, of the 501 people who opposed the proposals, many raised concerns about increased bureaucracy, while others said there were too many politicians in the area without having the expense of a mayor and associated staff.

Opponents of the proposed devolution deal said it would introduce an additional layer of local government almost immediately after combining district, borough and county councils into a singular North Yorkshire Council.

Opponents also said the proposed system would erode democratic accountability, increasing distances between residents and decision-makers, taking power away into the large centres of population.

There were concerns expressed over the proportionality of representation between York and North Yorkshire, with many arguing that it would be fairer for the number of decision-making representatives on the proposed combined authority to be based on the two area’s populations.

North Yorkshire electoral change campaigners accused of wasting council’s time

Electoral change campaigners have been accused of wasting North Yorkshire County Council’s time after calling for ruling Conservative councillors to press colleagues in Westminster to introduce proportional representation.

A meeting of the council’s executive saw residents and councillors give impassioned responses to a proposal by the Liberal Democrat councillor for High Harrogate and Kingsley, Chris Aldred, for it to endorse proportional representation at all elections.

The meeting heard at the 2019 general election, across the eight constituencies in North Yorkshire and York, the Conservatives received 54% of the votes cast, but ended up with seven out of the eight seats.

Campaigners told the meeting how analysis of the county council’s elections since 2005 had revealed that on average UKIP needed 15,500 votes per councillor, the Green Party 6,900, Labour 4,500, Liberal Democrats 3,500 and the Conservatives just 1,900.

The meeting heard claims that many residents believed their votes did not count, resulting in only 35% of those registered to vote taking part in last May’s council elections.

Campaigners called for North Yorkshire to lead the way for “a fairer future” and highlighted the region’s role in historic moments such as the women’s suffrage movement and action to abolish slavery.

The meeting was told the council’s Conservative administration had been formed despite the party’s candidates only receiving 41.3% of the votes, meaning nearly three in five of those who voted were not represented on the authority’s all-Tory decision-making executive.

After listening to numerous campaigners for 26 minutes, and opposition councillors state the reasoning behind the motions for a further 10 minutes, the authority’s deputy leader, Cllr Gareth Dadd, said the public would be “horrified” to learn the cost of officers’ and councillors’ time in considering the proposals.

He said:

“This is, let’s be clear about it, political posturing, by opposition members, grandstanding for no purpose in terms of outcome for this authority.

“We should be getting on with things that we have some control over.

“This should not be used again as a platform for self-indulgent and party political promotion.”

Cllr David Chance, executive member for corporate services, said there were pros and cons to any electoral system and while proportional representation could lead to more voices being heard, the electoral system could see more unstable coalition governments.

He added:

“The first-past-the-post system of voting has the advantage of providing a clear winner in every seat contested.

“It builds a strong relationship with the locally elected officials and is a well known system of voting that is easy to understand.”

Ahead of the executive agreeing that it would not support the proposal, which will be considered by the full council in May, Cllr Chance said electoral reform was an issue that Westminster politicians would decide, but that it was not on the government’s agenda.

North Yorkshire County Council rejects calls to brand fracking as ‘inappropriate’

The leadership of North Yorkshire County Council has rejected calls to label fracking as “inappropriate”.

The council’s Conservative-led executive said it would not support Liberal Democrat and Green motions to declare hydraulic fracturing as inappropriate in the county, despite the council having declared a climate emergency and pushing forward plans to reduce carbon.

While the authority’s leaders have pointed towards Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reimposing the government’s ban on fracking which was last year lifted by Liz Truss, opposition councillors have claimed the moratorium could be ended again.

The recommendation to a full meeting of the authority later this month comes three years after Third Energy announced it would not use planning consent for the hydraulic fracturing of rock to extract gas in Ryedale which the council’s planning committee granted it, triggering a huge and sustained outcry.

The planning decision in 2016 lead to hundreds of thousands of pounds of North Yorkshire taxpayers money being spent on policing protests outside the Kirby Misperton site.

A meeting of the executive heard opposition members implore the authority to show leadership over climate change policies and agree that fracking, which was “the most polluting fossil fuel extraction” was incompatible with its ambition to be part of the country’s first carbon negative region.

Green councillor Arnold Warneken, who represents Ouseburn, said the motions simply looked to reinforce the council’s policies over fracking.

He said:

“In this case we are not discussing the rights and wrongs of what we allow in our county, we are talking about saving our very existence.

“If we are going to ask all those third parties who are the major contributors to carbon emissions in this county to take us seriously, we can send strong messages out to tell them that we believe fracking is inappropriate.”

However, the authority’s top legal officer, Barry Khan, advised the executive that approving the motion could leave councillors open to accusations of pre-determining potential hydraulic fracturing planning applications, which in turn could undermine the council’s ability to decide on schemes.

He said the Localism Act stated councillors could not be accused of pre-determining a proposal solely on the basis of something they had previously stated and while some other councils may have taken “a more liberal view” of the legislation he believed a cautionary approach was right.

Mr Khan said approving the motion would create “an element of risk” that was unnecessary given that the council had already set out its positions in its Minerals and Waste Plan.

Cllr Simon Myers, whose executive portfolio includes planning, said those pushing the motions risked having decisions taken out of the hands of locally elected councillors and given to government inspectors instead.

The authority’s opposition leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths highlighted how neighbouring East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which also has significant amounts of its jurisdiction under oil and gas exploration licences, had recently passed a similar policy opposing fracking.

The Liberal Democrat said councils had set out their belief that fracking was environmentally-damaging without raising issues over pre-determination.

Green councillor Andy Brown added it was quite reasonable for a councillor to take a political position on fracking as well as sit on a planning committee and consider evidence about whether the proposal would be environmentally damaging.

Popular artist Lucy Pittaway ‘blown away’ by Harrogate gallery launch

This story is sponsored by Lucy Pittaway.

One of the UK’s favourite artists says she has been “blown away” by the reception since opening her new gallery in Harrogate before Christmas.

Lucy Pittaway already has four other galleries across the North – in Richmond, Yarm, Keswick and near her home in Brompton-on-Swale – where she sells original artwork and prints of her paintings, which she calls “art that makes you smile” – but wanted a presence a little further south.

She said:

“We’ve been blown away by the reception we’ve had in Harrogate – not just from other traders, but from local people coming into the gallery too.The feedback’s been wonderful. The gallery has been really well received, which makes us feel we’ve definitely made the right decision opening here.

“Footfall’s been incredibly strong. We were getting people wanting to come in before we’d even opened. It’s actually been quite challenging, because we’ve had to take on more people just to cope with demand.”

Lucy Pittaway graduated from Northumbria University with a degree in Graphic Design, and went on to teach and lecture at Darlington Technical College of Art and Design. It was only after she had started a family with childhood sweetheart Neil that she felt it was the perfect time to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a professional artist.

Her pictures, which often feature scenes, animals and characters from the Yorkshire Dales, can now be found in homes and galleries across the UK and beyond.

She has won an armful of prestigious awards from the Fine Art Trade Guild, including Best Up-and-Coming Artist, Best Art Website of the Year, and the UK’s Most Popular Published Artist in 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Nevertheless, when Lucy decided to open her gallery in the heart of Harrogate, on Prospect Place at the end of James Street, she had little idea of how local traders would respond – but she needn’t have worried.

She said:

“Coming to Harrogate has been really eye-opening. It’s a very welcoming town. From a business-to-business point of view, we were really quite overwhelmed by the help we received from [tourism body] Destination Harrogate. They took a lot of time out to answer all our questions about recruitment, seasonality, advertising and business organisations.

“Other businesses have been very supportive too, and I think that says a lot about the genuine nature of businesses in Harrogate. They want to do the best for their customers and are interested in improving choice on the high street.”

Buoyed by the success of the Harrogate opening, Lucy is now hoping to repeat the achievement in other towns in the region.

She said:

“We’ve just gone through some major renovation at our head office in Brompton-on-Swale, and have invested a lot in new warehousing and office space, which will help us feed more galleries and expand.

“We want to bring a vibrancy to the high street to make people smile. We’re planning to open more galleries this year – so watch this space!”

Find out more:

Discover why Lucy Pittaway is the UK’s most popular published artist by visiting her newest gallery at 21 Prospect Place, Harrogate.

Or check out her latest paintings on her award-winning website, lucypittaway.co.uk.

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A further dent in the Tories’ majority

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‘You can promise the earth in opposition’

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