For obvious reasons we were unable to hold the AGM in May this year. Usually the AGM is where Councillors Don Mackenzie and Graham Swift kindly give up their time every year to come along and answer questions from the attending residents.
This year we are rolling over all AGM business relating to governance and the committee until 2021. However, we asked our members to email some questions to us, which we then forwarded to Cllrs Swift and Mackenzie, who responded as follows:
1.Please could the councillors be asked about the future of Pineheath. I know this is a long-running saga, but it would be good to know what is the current state of affairs. The site is looking totally derelict. My understanding is that the Council has the right, and indeed the duty, to enforce the owner of any property to keep it up to a certain standard. Is this happening in this case? Or is the Council complicit in allowing the house to rot to such a dangerous state that they will sanction its dereliction?
Response from Cllr Swift
Pineheath is a private residence owned by a local businessman and developer, Mr Shaw. The owner clearly sees an opportunity to develop this site into a larger complex of apartments. His most recent application was heard before committee earlier this year, and the DRA did an excellent job in lodging your concern. The application was refused on multiple reasons including over intensity, loss of privacy and no offer of essential affordable housing compensation. The full history and reasons for rejection can be found at this website https://docs.harrogate.gov.uk/AniteIM.WebSearch/Results.aspx
HBC have only limited powers over owners who allow their property to run into dilapidation, including compulsory purchase which is often a very long, complicated and expensive action. However we also introduced a policy to prevent owners from leaving property vacant and owners are penalised financially for doing this.
Clearly in this case Mr Shaw has intent to develop the site and has submitted applications to our planning department. I anticipate further applications but there will need to be significant change in the application for it to receive approval from HBC’s planning committee. I encourage the DRA to keep lodging concerns where appropriate.
2.It would be nice to get a definite answer when potholes and road repairs will be completed on Oakdale and Oakdale Glen.
Response from County Councillor Don Mackenzie
The condition of Oakdale and Oakdale Glen has often been raised by local residents. Patching has taken place at regular intervals, and as recently as a couple of months ago. NYCC realises that the condition of both roads has reached the stage where patching and surface dressing are no longer appropriate and funding will be sought for the roads to be resurfaced in due course. NYCC is spending record amounts again this year on road repairs and a full programme is well underway.
3.What is involved in getting a weight and speed limit restriction along Duchy and Cornwall Road? There have been many lorries using Duchy Road in particular to cut across from Ripon Road to the building sites to the west of Harrogate. This is likely to get worse when the Whinney Lane site and other sites become active. Could a 20 mph limit be imposed on both Duchy and Cornwall Roads? Residents would argue that residential areas, often with double parked traffic (in the case of Duchy Road), HLC and Brackenfield schools, a large day nursery on Cornwall Road and numerous care homes are not suitable for HGV usage.
Response from County Councillor Don Mackenzie
Almost all residential estate roads in Harrogate and North Yorkshire have 30mph speed limits in force and have no weight restriction. I know that there is a great deal of construction work going on at the moment in the west of Harrogate along with increased HGV movements, but temporary conditions should not prompt permanent measures, which would be difficult to enforce.
The policy of NYCC regarding the introduction of 20mph limits is that they should be self-enforcing, since the police will not enforce them. In order to be self-enforcing, any 20mph limit introduction would need to be accompanied by engineered traffic-calming measures like chicanes, bumps, platforms etc. These tend to be very unpopular especially to householders who live close to the speed-limiting measures.
Speed checks do not indicate frequent speeding along the two roads in question. Nor is there any history of collisions or other incidents involving personal injury.
The Duchy Residents’ Association can contact the 95Alive Road Safety Partnership (involving the County Council, North Yorkshire Police and other blue light services) via the NYCC website to request speed checks and other road safety advice if it is wished to take this matter further.
4.Can you explain what is going on with devolution and how would it work having a single unitary authority – where would it be based? What are the pros and cons?
The government are keen to roll out devolution to combined authorities in England. Local Authorities are able to combine their ambition and receive considerable increased funding to carry out major initiatives in the region including, but not limited to, accelerate transport, housing, infrastructure and important regeneration projects. The government are offering the geographical areas of York and North Yorkshire a “gainshare” of £25 Million pounds per year for 30 years to accelerate growth in the geography.
The devolution deal comes with conditions and, importantly, councils will need to work together under the leadership of an elected Mayor, for which elections are currently provisionally scheduled for 2022 (but with the potential to be delayed to 2023).
At a very recent meeting with council leaders, Mr Simon Clarke MP, the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government added a further condition that councils in York, North Yorkshire and the districts of North Yorkshire would move to new unitary authorities to foster stronger local collaboration, take advantage of synergies to improve efficiency and reduce the level of democratic layers that often confuse residents. This would lead to the elimination of county and district councils in our area.
There is now a lot of work taking place by all of these authorities to produce options for the Minister to consider which would potentially see unitary authorities created in 2022 (or 23 as above). Most people recognise that unitary brings many advantages but very few people can appear to agree on the best geography to achieve it and it is this challenge that has often prevented unitary authorities from being created.
The Minister has given some guidelines around size, locality, scale, efficiency but it is likely that several options will be put forward to Ministers for consideration including (but not exclusively) a single unitary on the footprint of York and North Yorkshire, two unitaries on geographies of York and NY, two unitaries on a more equal population footprint of around 400,000 people or other scenarios. Everybody will have a view on what is best!
The government are obliged to consult but are not obliged to follow the direction of the consultation. The options are due to be presented by September and the government will make a decision in January 2021.
5. After years of austerity, it now seems as if the government is giving councils lots of money to help with the aftermath of lockdown – can you explain where this money will be going? What are the councils priorities in our new post-Covid world?
Covid 19 has brought considerable financial pressure on both councils. Some essential services have incurred substantially increased costs and councils have lost much of their income from revenue generating activities such as running car parks, swimming pools and from rents from businesses. NYCC and HBC have been effected by approximately £60MM and £9MM respectively.
The government have provided minor compensation to date and have pledged to provide 75p in the pound of other lost income but this has not yet been calculated.
All councils will be hit hard from this virus crisis and it is highly unlikely that government will relieve the councils of all of their incurred hardship. Sadly, the question’s comment is not correct and there is not a lot of money coming from government compared to the losses that have been incurred.
In terms of priorities, both councils have a recovery programme to support the district. Initially ensuring businesses survive and that people in need require urgent attention. As we move forwards the recovery programme will support businesses to access funding, assist with safe opening and access, ensure that regeneration projects are targeted and, where possible, accelerated.
From Don Mackenzie.
NYCC estimates that the COVID-19 crisis will have cost the authority at least £60m net. This is on account of a variety of reasons including: additional adult social care, PPE, various social distancing measures, loss of income from many sources including parking charges (which were suspended from March to June). The county council has continued to pay bus operators for contracted services like home-to-school transport even when schools were mainly shut, and for Concessionary Fares Scheme journeys based on recent averages – in order to ensure that the bus operators could survive and still be in business when the situation returns to normal.
Many thanks to Don and Graham for answering our questions and for their continued open dialogue with the Residents Association. We will be following up on the suggestions they have put forward.