NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
19 JULY 2023
STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR CULTURE, ARTS & HOUSING
including Culture, Arts, Libraries, Museums, Archives, Key venues, Leisure, and Housing
Leisure Services
Northallerton Leisure Centre Poolside Improvements
The swimming pool at Northallerton Leisure Centre is currently closed whilst essential work to replace the swimming pool air handling unit is carried out. The newly installed system will further enhance the centres carbon efficiency and help reduce energy costs, whilst closed, the centre has also planned further improvements to the pool area. This £350K programme of work will be completed in time for the busy school holidays.
Virtual Cycling
Stokesley Leisure Centre joins Bedale, Northallerton and Thirsk & Sowerby Leisure Centres with the installation and introduction of TechnoGyms virtual cycling offer. New audio-visual equipment has been installed alongside the virtual system to enhance the experience including a new sound and lighting system.
Scarborough Spa
July is shaping up to be a busy month with over 1,000 tickets now sold for ocean colour scene and two door cinema club. We also have summer show rehearsals starting on the July 6 and our Orchestra season starts again on July 23. In addition, we now have 14 weddings booked for 2024 and 7 for 2025 with the newly revamped Sun Court clearly attracting more weddings to the venue. There are also 3 new conference bookings for 2024 and 2025.
Peasholm Park
The attractions at Peasholm Park reopened for Easter this year and are now open daily until 3 September. Visitor’s experience dragon boats, rowing boats and try out the putting green or 18 hole pitch and putt course. Additionally, we have a total of 29 Naval Warfare shows this year commencing Saturday 24 June 2023 at 3pm followed by Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays throughout July and August. The last show is on Saturday 2 September.
The Bandstand is host to local brass and silver bands every Sunday up until September 10, and provide free entertainment for visitors.
Open Air Theatre
The 2023 season is well under way with performances from Mamma Mia, Blondie, Rag n Bone Man, Sting and Paul Heaton with many more to come this season. The season is shaping up to be another huge success and the feedback received from all shows has been exceptional.
Scarborough Sparkle planning for 2023 is nearly complete and the hugely popular Christmas Festival will return on 24 – 26 November.
Armed Forces Day
The flag raising ceremony took place on Monday, June 19 at the Town Hall gardens, hosted by the Vice Chairman of NYC, Cllr Swiers. A number of standards, veterans, cadets and serving personnel were present.
Armed Forces Day took place on Saturday, June 24 on Scarborough’s South Bay. The crowds, estimated to be in excess of 25,000 were treated to air displays by Strikemasters, Starlings, Titans and an autogyro.
The formal area was the focal point on the day for the presentation of military veteran awards at the opening ceremony, with VIPs including Major General Charlton-Weedy CBE DL, and the High Sheriff of North Yorkshire among those attending.
Out of the Box
Earlier this month colleagues attended the Association of Independent Museums national conference with one of our Ryedale freelancers to talk about the pilot project Out of the Box, a digital learning initiative delivered in partnership with independent museums in Ryedale. Colleagues shared learning and discussed wider opportunities for the expansion of the project and roll out of the model across a wider partnership of museums.
Craven Museum / STH Kids in Museums shortlist 2023
Craven Museum / Skipton Town Hall are excited to have been shortlisted for the Kids in Museums annual Family Friendly Museum Awards in the category for Best Accessible Museum – over 600 nominations were made for 110 museums and 18 made the shortlist across five categories. The shortlist will be judged by undercover family judges throughout the summer and winners will be announced in October.
Public art in Northallerton
As part of a project exploring local history in Northallerton, renowned sculptor Ray Lonsdale has been creating a piece called The Ballad of Sophia, which commemorates the life of Sophia Constable, the youngest inmate at Northallerton Prison. The sculpture is due to be installed shortly.
Archive at Dusk
On Thursday, May 25, we had an evening of archive adventure at the Record Office, for visitors to see behind the scenes and glimpse some of the wonderful and unique archival history within our collections. Around 250 visitors throughout the hugely successful evening. The teams involved are keen to continue offering these sorts of public access to history events in partnership with other local independent museums.
House History Travelling Exhibition
Raise the Roof! an exhibition showcasing many of the record sources available to people wanting to research the history of their homes, was recently held at the Record Office. The exhibition was very well received and is now touring North Yorkshire Libraries giving more people the opportunity to access inspiration and practical advice on how to begin this fascinating hobby.
NYOS Showcase
An exciting showcase of North Yorkshire Open Studios members will be going on display at the Exhibition Gallery in Skipton Town Hall this summer. Featuring selected artwork of thirty artists from across North Yorkshire. The exhibition highlights diverse artwork from the coast to the moors, Dales, and beyond and will run until the end of summer July 5 to September 16, 2023.
Skipton Pride
Skipton Library & Skipton Town Hall have been working together on Skipton Pride, along with North Yorkshire Youth Service, SELFA and Skipton Town Council. The programme of events took place from July 6-9.
Local & Community History Month
Libraries across North Yorkshire worked closely with Museums and Archives during May to hold a series of events around the theme of Folklore. Over 30 events were held with over 750 people attending talks, local history roadshows, craft sessions and exhibitions celebrating the rich and varied folklore of North Yorkshire.
Libraries of Sanctuary Accreditation
North Yorkshire Libraries have just been awarded Library of Sanctuary status. This is national recognition for our work to provide a safe and supportive space to people from all communities. The assessment panel were very interested in the support from our mobile library service which has been visiting asylum seekers in the hotels. We will be putting together a press release and arranging a ‘celebration’ event to receive our certificate.
Scarborough Library
Scarborough Library re-opened on May 22, following a £450K refurbishment partly funded through the Libraries Improvement Fund (DCMS funding administered by the Arts Council) to transform the downstairs space. There is a new children’s library, IT areas with a mix of computers and touchdown spaces to use your own device, meeting booths, exhibition area, a community meeting space and a café area.
National Acquisitions Group Award
North Yorkshire Libraries were awarded the National Acquisitions Group (NAG) Award for Excellence 2022 for their innovative “Tough Topics” packs. The award was presented at the NAG Annual Seminar in London last month where the library team presented on their project to the wider NAG membership.
Housing
Whilst we are still gathering data from across the County on affordable housing completions for quarter 1 of 2023/24, initial indications are positive with more than 100 homes already delivered across the former Harrogate area alone.
As a housing authority, we are involved in all affordable housing delivery across our area, whether the homes are delivered directly by the council or through partnership working with others, such as housing associations or through our Rural Enabler Network.
In terms of direct delivery, North Yorkshire Council has an ongoing programme of newbuild on small, under- utilised sites. Last month saw the official handover of three social rented family homes; built by council’s in house development team on a redundant garage site at Holmefield Road, Ripon. The council has also bought a number of former council houses for sale on the open market in recent months, concluding its programme of 20 acquisitions from 2022/23.
In the former Ryedale district, the remaining flat in a block of four owned by the Council, has sold on a leasehold basis as discount sale in the market town of Helmsley. This completes an allocation of affordable housing on a new build scheme under a S106 where the flats were sold at a discount of 50% of the open market value, to people with a local connection to Helmsley.
Work has commenced on site on a major affordable housing scheme in Osgodby, just outside Scarborough, where 126 affordable homes are being built for Karbon Homes. The development will provide a mix of rented, rent to buy and shared ownership homes and the first completions will be in 2024.
Additional Ukrainian support- Homelessness Prevention Grant Uplift for 2023/24
The government is providing an additional £830,715 for North Yorkshire through the Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG). This will ensure that Ukrainian guests can be supported to move into their own homes and reduce the risk of homelessness.
The funding will be allocated to all local authorities as a top-up to the existing Homelessness Prevention Grant. This grant is ring-fenced for homelessness prevention. The allocation to North Yorkshire reflects both Homes for Ukraine arrival numbers reported for each local
We welcome the additional funding which recognises the commitment of sponsors and the work we have already been doing during difficult economic times and will provide additional support and reassurance to Ukrainian families as they rebuild their lives and seek to overcome the trauma of war.
COUNCILLOR SIMON MYERS