North Yorkshire Council
Richmond (Yorks) Area Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 30 June 2025 commencing at 10.00 am.
Councillor Yvonne Peacock in the Chair and Councillors Caroline Dickinson, Kevin Foster, Bryn Griffiths, David Hugill, Carl Les, Heather Moorhouse, Stuart Parsons, Karin Sedgwick, David Webster, Annabel Wilkinson and Malcolm Warne.
Officers present: Louisa Carolan – Principal Regeneration Officer, Jayne Charlton, Area Manager, Helenor Gwatkin - Senior Community Safety and CCTV Officer, Nicki Lishman - Senior Democratic Services Officer, Jennie Middleton - Snr Network Coordination Officer, Niall Paterson - Snr Network Compliance Officer and Paul Romans – Community Safety & CCTV Manager.
Other attendees: Inaki Gaspar - Align Property Partners, Inspector Keiran Conlon and Sergeant Chris Hughes, North Yorkshire Police.
Apologies: Angus Thompson, John Weighell OBE and Peter Wilkinson.
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Copies of all documents considered are in the Minute Book
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148 |
Election of Chair
Councillor Caroline Dickinson proposed and Councillor Stuart Parsons seconded that Councillor Yvonne Peacock be elected Chair of the Committee until the first meeting of the Committee following the Council’s Annual General Meeting in 2026.
Resolved
That Councillor Yvonne Peacock be elected Chair of the Richmond (Yorks) Area Committee until the first meeting of the Committee following the Council’s Annual General Meeting in 2026.
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149 |
Minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2025
That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2025, as circulated, be taken as read and confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.
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150 |
Apologies for absence
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Alyson Baker, Angus Thompson, John Weighell and Peter Wilkinson.
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151 |
Election of Vice Chair
Councillor Yvonne Peacock proposed and Councillor Stuart Parsons seconded that Councillor Caroline Dickinson be elected Vice Chair of the Committee until the first meeting of the Committee following the Council’s Annual General Meeting in 2026.
Resolved
That Councillor Caroline Dickinson be elected Vice Chair of the Richmond (Yorks) Area Committee until the first meeting of the Committee following the Council’s Annual General Meeting in 2026.
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152 |
Declarations of interest
In the interest of transparency Councillor Yvonne Peacock declared a personal, non-prejudicial and non-pecuniary interest in Item 10 as she was a member of the Upper Dales Community Partnership.
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153 |
Public participation
There were no public questions or statements.
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154 |
Community safety and CCTV annual update
Considered – Community Safety & CCTV Annual Report
Paul Romans, Community Safety & CCTV Manager, Helenor Gwatkin, Senior Community Safety & CCTV Officer, Inspector Kieran Conlon, Richmondshire Neighbourhood Policing Team and Sergeant Chris Hughes, Neighbourhood Policing Team for Northallerton representing Hambleton.
A key area of focus had been anti-social behaviour by young people in the Richmond and Northallerton area. Partnership work was ongoing with a wider strategic group, including Children and Family Services, to move that forward.
The Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) at Richmond Falls ended last year and the very successful work that the Community Safety Hub and the Project Spotlight initiative had undertaken had resulted in no reports of anti-social behaviour in the area.
There have been requests for PSPOs in other locations and Project Spotlight linking with businesses in Leeming Bar.
A significant amount of work had been done to tackle anti-social behaviour by housing association residents across the Hambleton area, which have resulted in evictions. The team was also tackling anti-social behaviour by youths around Northallerton, Bedale, and Stokesley.
There had been a large decrease in the anti-social use of two wheeled vehicles following work with the Roads Policing Group, seizing a number of vehicles and dealing with the offenders.
The Community Safety Hubs in Hambleton and Richmond area link into the wider Community Safety Partnership which looks at the priorities for domestic abuse, preventing and reducing serious violence. The Protect and Prepare groups for west, east and central areas focus on counterterrorism. PREVENT focuses on early intervention with individuals whose ideological beliefs may lead them to violence.
Members had questions on:
· The number of incidents and arrests related to the number of prosecutions. It was explained that there was a necessity to make an arrest but there may not have been sufficient evidence to prosecute · The location, management and operation of CCTV cameras particularly in Catterick Garrison and Northallerton · Data protection and the use of private CCTV footage and Ring doorbells. It was explained that this would be a civil matter
The Chair thanked the officers for their excellent report.
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155 |
Traffic management for diversions - verbal update
Jayne Charlton, Area Manager and Niall Paterson, Senior Network Compliance Officer and Jennie Middleton, Senior Network Coordination Officer attended the meeting to update Members on traffic management for diversions.
Members had received a written response from the Area Manager to the questions raised by the Chair prior to the meeting and the Chair opened up the debate for further questions and requests for information.
Members were concerned that operators do not carry out due diligence when traffic management systems and diversions are put in place to assess the impact on local people. This places additional demands on Council officers who have to check work, address problems and chase solutions.
Officers explained that utility companies should provide a permit application, road closure application and a traffic management plan for any proposed works. The road closure application specifies that advanced warning is given a week before the works and notify local business and residents. The Council then scrutinises the plan to ensure that it minimises disruption.
When asked if the Council can fine utility companies who fail to manage the diversions and signage appropriately, Mr Paterson explained the legislation that applies, which in many cases favours the utility companies. The fixed penalty notices that may be issued are £120, discounted to £80 if paid within a certain timescale.
Members had concerns regarding the length of some diversion routes and Ms Charlton explained that the that diversions are to routes of a similar or equivalent standard to cater for all local traffic. The rural nature of the county means that there are occasions when lengthy diversions are unavoidable.
Traffic management companies have to be accredited to a certain standard either under the Highways Act, the Traffic Management Act or the Roads and Streetworks Act.
Ms Charlton explained that NYC are introducing lane rental, which is a process where companies pay by the day on strategic routes. This is a significantly increased cost to the utility companies, which encourages them to complete the works as quickly as possible to reopen the lane/road. Statistics from similar local authorities show that that 2 years after lane rental was introduced, 90% of works were completed within 2 days.
Specific issues were raised regarding works at Morton-on-Swale and on the A6136.
Ms Charlton explained the procedure for surface dressing and that the teams hold a weekly progress meeting where any issues can be addressed with contractors.
Councillors thanked officers for attending.
Resolved
That the question-and-answer document be shared with parish councils in the committee area and that consideration be given to including it in Members’ induction packs.
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Highways and street works information attachment
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156 |
Progress on projects commissioned through ERT&T project development fund
Considered – report of the Corporate Director – Community Development.
Louisa Carolan, Principal Regeneration Officer and Inaki Gaspar, Align Property Partners, presented the report, which was to note the completion of the Economic, Regeneration, Tourism and Transport Project Development Fund.
The parking spaces for private hire taxes at Hildyard Row had been completed and the spaces were available for use.
The contribution to the A684 Morton Flats responsive signage project has been made and the signage has been purchased.
Members requested an update on the project, and the officer advised that the project was complete in that the equipment had been purchased. There was some difficulty booking the road space to do the work due to conflict with the utility works in Morton on Swale and the repair of the bridge. It was hoped to complete before the end of the summer.
The completed Transport to Work and Study Review was included with the report and officers asked for Members questions or comments.
The officer confirmed that the report did not include information of home to school transport, the focus was on transport links to employment and further education.
Information and data for the report was collated from North Yorkshire Council’s website which holds all timetable information, Travel line and Google maps. It was found that Google maps do not hold all information. As a result, one of the recommendations in the report was that all sources of public transport data should hold all information.
Members raised concerns regarding the frequency and reliability of services across the Richmond area and the county as a whole, including issues with accessing health services over the county border and the lack of connectivity with other transport service providers.
Officers confirmed that further information was sought from businesses and some education providers, as a key objective of the report was how businesses in the area were affected. The Let's Talk Transport research was included in the report. This consultation had consulted with residents and businesses on transport provision and the reliability of services to get to work was an issue.
Members pointed out a number of concerns regarding some of the data in the report such as the areas shown on some of the maps, the definition of the frequency of scheduled services and typographical errors.
Councillor Caroline Dickinson proposed and Councillor Yvonne Peacock seconded that the Transport to Work and Study Review be submitted to the office of the Mayor for York and North Yorkshire.
Resolved
That the report be noted and that the Transport to Work and Study Review be submitted to the office of the Mayor for York and North Yorkshire.
Councillor Bryn Griffiths arrived at 11.02am.
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157 |
Update on Richmond Town Investment Plan
Louisa Carolan, the Principal Regeneration Officer, updated the committee on the Richmond Town Investment Plan.
The Council was looking to produce Town Investment Plans for 32 towns across North Yorkshire. Work on the Richmond plan had commenced with input from the local Councillor and colleagues from the Localities team.
Initial work included gathering information from local stakeholders across five themes of · health and leisure · culture, heritage and events · employment, business and tourism · environment both built and green and · a community group including faith and young people.
This was to gather opinions on how people felt about Richmond, what do they like, what are its strengths and what would they like to see changed or improved. Additional sessions were planned with schools, youth groups and with business groups. This would be followed by wider community engagement piece of work including three drop-in sessions during July and a survey to gather more information about what the people of Richmond would like to see within the town plan.
Further work would be undertaken to gather information on existing data and strategies to bring together an evidence base of what should be included within the town plan.
There had been initial conversations on Hawes with the Localities team and the local Councillor.
Future plans were likely to include Northallerton, Leyburn, Stokesley, Catterick and Colburn and Bedale. It was hoped that a number would be started during this financial year.
Councillors were keen to ensure that the views of all sectors were included and that disability awareness and accessibility in the towns was considered.
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158 |
Discussion item - Yorkshire Water
Yorkshire Water (YW) had agreed to attend the next meeting of the committee and had requested a list of topics that Members would like to discuss.
Initial suggestions were:
· Response times to reported leaks and how their response is co-ordinated · What steps are YW taking to reduce river pollution? · YW and housing development The clerk advised that, following the recent presentation by YW to the Thirsk & Malton Area Committee, a Members’ seminar was being arranged on housing development and the provision of YW services.
Members were invited to submit any other questions to the clerk for submission to Yorkshire Water.
As Northumbrian Water and Severn Trent supplied some locations covered by the Area Committee, Members requested similar information from those companies.
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159 |
Work programme
Members considered the work programme and requested updates on:
· Catterick Integrated Care Centre · Richmond Pool · The latest information on ash dieback
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160 |
Any other items
There were no urgent items of business.
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161 |
Reports circulated for information only
The Area Committee Annual Report and the Let’s Talk Active consultation outcomes were noted.
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The meeting concluded at 12.00 pm.