Green grants spark concern North Yorkshire will miss out to York

Council leaders have defended funding allocations for net zero projects in York amid claims they received a disproportionate amount of money to North Yorkshire.

A joint meeting of the Conservative-run North Yorkshire and Labour-run City of York councils to discuss the expected creation of a mayoral combined authority in January heard while the councils had agreed on how to split the first significant tranche of government devolution funding, uncertainty still surrounds the transfer of powers from Westminster.

Ahead of the meeting opposition councillors in North Yorkshire claimed the proposed division of the funds for net zero schemes would see York receive 47% of £6.2m being spent on capital schemes, despite having a population of about a third the size of North Yorkshire.

A total of 23 schemes will receive a share of the funding unlocked by the region’s proposed devolution deal, subject to devolution progressing for York and North Yorkshire.

They include street and building LED lighting schemes in York as well as innovation in energy generation, including The Electric Cow Project at Askham Bryan College in the city.

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The farming scheme will fund slurry-fuelled conversion equipment for dairy farms across the region to generate electricity from cow manure.

Other projects approved aim to tackle a decline of biodiversity, such as the project at the Denton Park Estate, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, where funds will support moorland restoration.

Critics of the proposed net zero programme have claimed York residents will benefit from millions of pounds of extra funding at the expense of communities across the vast rural county.

However, York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership boss James Farrar told the meeting the schemes which were being funded represented “a good spread” across the area, including ones in York and every constituency in North Yorkshire.

Countering the criticism, leaders of both councils heralded the investment as a milestone for the region, with North Yorkshire Council leader Cllr Carl Les saying it was “a very exciting time”.

City of York Council’s leader Cllr Claire Douglas said addressing climate change was becoming increasingly important and the proposals represented the first cross-region thinking, rather than for York or for North Yorkshire as entities.

She said: 

“It’s really fantastic to see there’s such a wide coverage of the region.

“I think it’s also fantastic to see that this is the first significant investment that the combined authority is able to commit to.”

North Yorkshire Council set to lobby government for water quality measures

North Yorkshire Council looks set to write to the government calling for fundamental reform of the planning system to improve the county’s rivers, watercourses and coastline.

The Conservative-run council will consider pressing Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey, to make a series of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to avert pollution as a result of new development.

The proposal has been approved by the authority’s transport, economy and environment scrutiny committee as a recommendation to be considered at a full meeting of the authority next month, alongside a series of other proposals to get to grips with water pollution in the county.

The meeting heard councillors raise serious concerns over water pollution in rivers such as the Swale and Ure, which run through Rishi Sunak’s constituency, as well as the county’s coastal waters, where marine life has repeatedly been impacted by a mystery issue in the water.

Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Mason told the committee the proposals needed bolstering by national policy to ensure developers could not use devices such as viability tests to avoid consideration of water issues.

He said: 

“We need to be lobbying hard for this to be included in national legislation.”

Cllr Hannah Gostlow, whose division includes Knaresborough and the River Nidd, which saw 870 sewage dump incidents last year, said lobbying government would be viewed as “a major step” by the authority.

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The proposed measures will aim to establish what the impacts and receptors are in relation to any development.

The meeting heard neither Local Plan policies nor national framework have the capacity to extend consideration in planning decisions to where foul water is in the main sewer, in terms of how it is treated.

Councillors were told a motion of council, to make water issues a “material planning consideration” would be of limited weight, and were they to be treated as having more weight in a development decision than the Local Plan or national framework, the decision could be challenged by developers at appeal.

Councillors from a range of political groups told the meeting there was a clear mandate to seek to have more robust engagement with water firms “to fully understand capacity constraints and opportunities”.

It is hoped making water firms statutory consultees in planning decisions, in the same way as exists for flooding and highways authorities, would allow the companies to embed expanding their capacity and technologies to reduce the incidence of flooding, whilst accommodating increased usage.

After the meeting, the council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said he sympathised with proposals to make water firms statutory consultees in planning decisions.

He said he believed councillors would all support lobbying the government to enable water firms to levy infrastructure charges on property developers to enable them to finance improving the capacity of systems such as sewage.

When asked whether the government should introduce a tougher system of fines for pollution breaches, Cllr Les said he was concerned water users would face increased charges to cover the firms’ fines.

Proposals for Harrogate Town Council expected next year

New proposals to set-up a Harrogate Town Council are now expected next year, according to North Yorkshire Council.

Harrogate and Scarborough were expected to get their own town councils in May 2024 but the process was delayed after councillors on North Yorkshire Council, which is charged with setting up the local authorities, asked to redraw its ward boundaries.

Residents had previously backed the creation of two councillor wards arranged by the current 10 North Yorkshire Council divisions. Saltergate would have had just one councillor.

However, Conservative councillors on North Yorkshire Council said they didn’t want to proceed with this model and instead wanted to see single councillor wards based around the 19 former Harrogate Borough Council boundaries.

This means there will have to be a third public consultation so the public can have their say on the new wards.

The consultations are a legal necessity but it will take the combined cost of holding them to more than £140,000.

Barry Khan, North Yorkshire Council’s assistant chief executive legal and democratic services, said: 

“Officers are continuing to work on possible warding patterns for both Harrogate and Scarborough town councils and a report setting out options will be taken to the standards and governance committee next year.”

This month, the council revealed the winners and losers of the 12 ‘double-devolution’ bids from parishes that would like to take control of assets in their areas.

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Harrogate Town Council, if it’s created, could apply to run services in the town such as looking after its parks or the Stray, operating car parks or managing the Royal Hall.

The council has said that households would initially be asked to pay between £40 and £60 on top of their council tax to allow the town council to have an annual budget in the range of £1m to £1.6m.

If residents approve the proposals laid out in the next consultation, the council would likely form in April 2025 with elections taking place in May, although this has not been confirmed yet.

North Yorkshire Conservatives dismiss claims over residents’ questions ban

Conservative leaders on North Yorkshire Council have dismissed claims they are attempting to “stifle democracy” by banning residents who cannot attend their weekday daytime committee meetings from having their questions read out.

Cllr Carl Les, leader of the authority, said the move had been proposed by a cross-party group of councillors earlier this month and was designed to prevent council meetings becoming overwhelmed by questions, impeding debates and council business on the agendas.

Cllr Les was speaking after the authority’s executive pushed forward a series of changes to its constitution last week, including banning questions from residents unless they attended meetings, which are all held from Monday to Friday and during conventional working hours.

The cross-party group of councillors had considered whether the discretion of the meeting’s chair to allow questions to be read out in the questioner’s absence should be removed.

The group has proposed that unless there was an exceptional reason, such as a disability, any member of the public wishing to ask a question should attend the meeting or send a representative to do so.

Failure to do so would mean the question not being read at the meeting, however a written response from council officers would be provided.

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The group also felt that meeting chairs should be able to handle the 30-minute public question time at the start of meetings “in their absolute discretion”.

The proposals, to be put before a full meeting of the authority next month, follows criticism that reducing the number of councillors in the county from more than 319 to 90 in forming the unitary council had produced “a democratic deficit”.

The criticism follows the administration facing fierce opposition to setting a time limit on councillors’ questions to the council’s executive members at the quarterly full meetings of the authority, the only opportunity in which elected community representatives can raise issues before all their counterparts.

Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Mason said the proposals to be put before a full meeting of the authority next month were “deeply concerning”.

He said: 

“Over the past two years we have seen democracy and community engagement attacked and blocked again and again with local government reform.

“There is a growing mistrust of underhand tactics which undermine basic British democratic values. Opposition councillors have already been censored, now they are going after the public rights as well.”

Independent group leader on the authority, Cllr Stuart Parsons added: 

“This is yet another attempt to stifle democracy and limit legitimate scrutiny at North Yorkshire Council.

“It also show that the Conservatives have failed to understand that people have busy lives and are not always available at 10am. Perhaps if North Yorkshire Council held its’ meeting at times suitable for the public then more people would be able to attend.”

The administration, which after seeing its narrow overall majority slip away has merged with three Independent members to form a Conservatives and Independents ruling group, claimed setting a time limit was necessary to ensure the council’s business would not be impeded by endless questions.

Cllr Les said: 

“It is a bit disingenuous to say it is the executive driving this through. What we are doing is acting what the cross-party group has spent some time talking through and coming up with a majority, if not unanimous view.

“Certainly we are not against members of the public speaking at committees.”

When asked if he was concerned many members of the public could struggle to attend the weekday meetings, Cllr Les said the objectors had raised “a valid point”.

He added: 

“The counter point is you could then have a lot of written questions to any meeting and it might get difficult to manage.

“If you had 100 people writing in with a question the committee would only ever spend its time talking about the questions that have been put by absentee members of the public.”

Start date for North Yorkshire combined authority delayed

The establishment of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority looks set to be delayed, according to a council report.

The combined authority, which will be overseen by a directly elected mayor, is expected to have powers to make decisions on matters such as economic development and transport.

Its formation will be overseen by Harrogate-born James Farrar as chief operating officer in its transition year.

The authority had been due to be set up this year and begin operation in May.

However, according to a North Yorkshire Council report, the establishment of the authority looks set to be delayed as parliament debates the devolution deal later this month.

The Stray Ferret asked York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, which is helping to form the combined authority, when the start date would be delayed to.

In response, a spokesperson said:

“Assumptions used to form the combined authority budget were set against a timeline of key milestones, including a parliamentary debate period starting in September.

“This milestone is now anticipated to begin later this month and therefore reflects an amendment of the assumed start date. The timeline remains on track for mayoral elections to run in May 2024.”

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An order is expected be laid before parliament later in the autumn, which will include provisions for powers and funding tied to a devolution deal as well as paving the way for the creation of the authority.

The move to set up a combined authority comes as North Yorkshire agreed a historic devolution deal with government.

The proposed devolution deal includes a £7 million investment to drive green economic growth towards the ambition of York and North Yorkshire becoming the country’s first carbon negative region.

There is also proposed investment of up to £2.65 million to deliver affordable low-carbon housing, and £13 million for the building of new homes on brownfield land during 2023/24 and 2024/25.

The elected mayor will make decisions on investments in strategic priorities such as for transport, housing, and adult education.

The mayor will also have responsibilities for community safety and strategic responsibility for the totality of policing, fire and crime for York and North Yorkshire.

They will appoint a deputy mayor to carry out many of the powers and duties of the role currently known as police, fire and crime commissioner.

An election for the mayor will be held in May 2024. 

Harrogate’s rare historic items set to remain with local organisations

Councillors are set to approve new loan agreements for some of Harrogate’s rare civic items which include objects that date back to the town’s Victorian heyday.

Following local government reorganisation, the Harrogate Borough Council civic collection was transferred to the town’s charter trustees, which are 10 councillors who represent divisions in Harrogate.

The charter trustees now have responsibility for the collection of civic regalia, silverware, trophies and plaques, glass and crystal, books and scrolls and other historic items.

Currently the Royal Hall Restoration Trust, the Harrogate Club and Masham Town Hall have some items from the collection on loan which they hope to retain.

North Yorkshire Council said loaning the items out has provided more opportunities for the public to view the civic collection and has increased awareness of the town’s heritage and history.

Items held by the the Royal Hall Restoration Trust include the foundation stone trowel for Harrogate Library, a pump room cigarette box and a framed Tour de France yellow jersey signed by Marcel Kittel — winner of the first stage in Harrogate 2014.

The organisation also holds a scroll that was produced to mark a royal visit in 1894, the spade that cut the first section of the Bilton gas works railway in 1907 and a framed proclamation of King Edward’s accession from 1936.

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The charter trustees will meet next Monday at the Civic Centre when they are expected to renew the loan agreements.

They will also consider a finance report that notes how much the charter trustees have cost the public so far.

For the financial year 2023/24, there was a budget of £12,500 and a report says £5,000 has been spent on officer support from North Yorkshire Council.

A Harrogate Town Council was expected to take over the running of the town’s civic traditions next year but its likely creation has been put back until 2025.

This is to allow for another consultation that will ask the public about proposed ward boundaries and the number of councillors the new council will have.

Council to bid for government funding to progress Harrogate social housing schemes

North Yorkshire Council is set to bid for government funding to progress five social housing schemes in the Harrogate district.

The authority is set to apply for a grant from Homes England to help fund the projects, which include new build houses and conversion of a former Robert Street homeless hostel.

In a report due before senior councillors on Tuesday, council officers said the move would help to meet “huge demand” for social rented housing in Harrogate.

Currently, the council has 2,196 households on its housing waiting list in Harrogate alone.

Vicky Young, the council’s housing policy and strategy officer, said in her report:

“The tenure of the new build units will be social rent. 

“There is huge demand for social rented accommodation in the Harrogate locality, with 2,196 households currently registered on the Harrogate waiting list.”

Among the projects in the councils bid include new build homes on Poplar Grove and Gascoigne Crescent in Harrogate, Springfield Drive in Boroughbridge and Kingsway in Huby.

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Each of the homes are estimated to cost £375,000 to construct.

Meanwhile, the council also estimates that a plan to convert Cavendish House on Harrogate’s Robert Street into six flats would cost £400,000.

The former homeless hostel will be converted into a shared ownership property.

Councillors approved the conversion of the hostel in September. At the time, the council said in a report that the property would help to deliver “much needed affordable housing”.

It said:

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

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

The bid to Homes England would help towards 30% of the total cost of the five schemes.

According to the report, the projects would cost £1.9 million to build.

Senior councillors will discuss the bid at a council executive meeting on October 17.

North Yorkshire housing companies estimate end of year profits

Two North Yorkshire Council housing companies are estimating to report a profit by the end of this financial year.

Brierley Homes and Bracewell Homes are expected to post improved performance after completing further sales, according to a council financial report.

Both companies were taken over by North Yorkshire Council in April 2023.

Bracewell, which is a former Harrogate Borough Council firm, is forecasting a profit return of £1.52 million by the end of 2023/24.

A report said the company had seen sales of shared ownership properties and the “receipt of rental income on the proportion retained within the company”.

However, it added that Bracewell was still awaiting the completion of purchasing a further two sites.

It said:

“The main challenge for the Company relates to receiving accurate information from developers.

“Bracewell is due to complete on house purchases at two sites this financial year however neither developer has managed to achieve their initial forecast completion dates.”

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Meanwhile, Brierley Homes, which was set up by the former North Yorkshire County Council, is forecasting a profit of £959,000 by the end of the year.

The figure is based on the company completing sales at sites in Marton cum Grafton, Pateley Bridge and Great Ouseburn.

Meanwhile, the firm is expected to start work on another housing site in Kirby Malzeard this year.

It comes as the council reported a “positive outlook” for the company in March amid an increase in sales.

Call for North Yorkshire police commissioner to delay chief constable appointment

A watchdog has urged North Yorkshire’s police commissioner to delay the appointment of a new chief constable for up to 15 months, partly to ensure the top police officer sees eye-to-eye with an incoming elected mayor.

All but four members of North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel voted to recommend to commissioner Zoe Metcalfe that she postpones finding a successor to chief constable Lisa Winward, who announced last month she would retire in March next year.

A meeting of the panel at City of York Council heard Ms Winward’s retirement had come at a particularly inopportune time as she would be leaving the key role just weeks before a mayor, who would set policing priorities, was expected to be elected to an incoming combined authority.

Panel members heard while the commissioner had decided to launch the recruitment process, with a likely appointment date in April, if the process was launched after the expected mayoral election in May, a new chief constable may not be appointed until 2025.

Ms Metcalfe told the meeting she had been independently advised to launch the recruitment as soon as practically possible by a string of national bodies and top officials, including the chiefs of the police inspectorate and the college of policing as well as Unison.

She said: 

“I am not satisfied that deferring the decision to the incoming mayor, which would incur inevitable delay, for many months, and even extending until 2025, is the right decision for the public, delivery of service and North Yorkshire Police.”

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Following concerns that uncertainty over who the incoming mayor would be could deter some candidates from applying to be chief constable, she added the role of leading the force was an “immensely exciting prospect” for any police leader.

She underlined that if the process was delayed until after the election the deputy chief constable would be asked to step up for “a very prolonged period of time”.

She said her experience of working with chief constables was that they were “very professional people” who would go out of their way to make a working relationship with the new mayor and deliver the mayor’s priorities.

Panel member Martin Walker, a former judge, backed the commissioner’s decision, saying one of the main criteria for a chief constable was to be “independent and strong”.

He said: 

“If two people at the top of the most difficult, important and complex jobs can’t get on, and it has to depend on personalities, I think that’s wrong and frankly it wouldn’t be fit to do the job.

“In my own experience, throughout my career, I have had to work with people I don’t like, and I’m sure some didn’t like me, but it’s necessary to do that in life, and in my view you have to get on with it.”

However, several panel members said the relationship between the mayor and chief constable was vital and they wanted to see the priorities of the incoming mayor part of the process for the selection of a new chief constable.

The meeting the commissioner repeatedly pressed to pause the recruitment process until after a mayor is elected.

Cllr Lindsay Burr, who represents Malton, said it would be an incorrect decision for the public to appoint a chief constable when the force’s strategic direction had not been set by the incoming mayor.

Huby councillor and former police officer Malcolm Taylor said while moving ahead with recruiting a chief constable might be a good decision in the short-term, the appointment was a long-term role.

North Yorkshire double devolution ‘will not help vast majority of area’

A flagship scheme to hand extra powers to parishes following the creation of North Yorkshire Council will not benefit the vast majority of the area, it has been claimed.

Opposition groups on the Conservative-run council have expressed disappointment after it emerged just 11 town councils and one parish council had submitted bids to manage more services in their area as part of what the authority has titled “double devolution”.

The offer to hand powers to parish authorities was initially made in former North Yorkshire County Council’s submission to government for the establishment of a unitary council amid concerns that decision-making for local services would become too far removed.

An officer’s report to a meeting of the council’s executive on Tuesday emphasises how the council has pledged to place local communities at its heart while covering England’s largest county, and double devolution would be “a key platform to achieving this aim”.

However, the report states double devolution applications would need to have a solid business case and be cost neutral to the unitary council.

It states of the 12 expressions of interest submitted by town and parish councils, three did not meet the council’s criteria, including the only one from a parish council.

Knaresborough Town Council could be given powers over its market.

Knaresborough Town Council could be given powers over the town’s market.

The report states Little Ouseburn Parish Council applied to manage grass cutting outside some cottages, but the parish “did not evidence legal competence”. 

Stokesley Town Council’s bid to manage off-street parking was rejected as North Yorkshire Council stood to lose income.

Double devolution bids which are set to be approved include Filey being given the power to manage its public benches, Northallerton and Thirsk and Knaresborough town councils their markets, Richmond Town Council being handed the management of Friary Gardens and Malton Town Council its public toilets.

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Elsewhere, Skipton and Whitby town councils look set to be told their bids to manage services such as toilets and parks need “amendments”, while separate project teams will be established to work with Ripon and Selby town councils to shape their bids due to their “ambition and complexity of the expressions of interest”.

Ahead of the meeting, the authority’s executive member for corporate services, Cllr David Chance, said the authority was looking to “progress cautiously, learning from the experience and developing best practice”.

He said: 

“These proposed pilots are just the start of the process, and the hope is that more will be introduced throughout North Yorkshire in the future.”

However, the authority’s Labour group leader Cllr Steve Shaw Wright said for the vast majority of North Yorkshire double devolution was “just lip service” and “managing a couple of flower beds does not require a fantastic business case”.

Cllr Wright said: 

“It was a nice soundbite, but outside some of the larger towns there’s not a lot to double devolve down.

“The issue across the whole of North Yorkshire is that there is only a handful of sizeable councils that could take on and run services. The vast majority of other parishes either haven’t got the capacity to do it, are reluctant to put the precept up to fund it or there isn’t actually anything there to run.

“It was not a particularly well thought through proposal looking at the parishes and towns we have in North Yorkshire. Most parishes are very small.”

When asked if he believed double devolution was proving a success in North Yorkshire, Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Grifths said: 

“Not at this stage, it has not taken off at all. I’m very disappointed.

“I’m not sure how much engagement the towns and parishes have had or if they understood what was involved. Having said that it is up to North Yorkshire Council to equip towns and parishes to make it happen.

“I feel Stokesley put a good case forward and North Yorkshire Council’s response has been a bit of a slap in the face.”