NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL
15 May 2024
STATEMENT OF EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR OPEN TO BUSINESS
including Economic Development & Regeneration, Planning, Visitor Economy, Broadband, and Harbours
Economic Development, Regeneration, Tourism & Skills
Economic Development
The North Yorkshire Economic Growth Strategy has now been published and is available on the Council website here: North Yorkshire Council Economic Growth Strategy
The three year UK Shared and Rural England Prosperity Fund programme continues to be delivered successfully with £7,117,440 of grants given to North Yorkshire communities and businesses so far. Year Three programmes are now advertised on North Yorkshire Council’s Website and there is a total of £15,212,400 capital and revenue grant money next year.
UK Shared Prosperity Fund | North Yorkshire Council
North Yorkshire Council and Combined Authority staff have evolved a ‘One Front Door’ approach to provision of business advice services for North Yorkshire businesses. Combined Authority advisors will provide specialist guidance whereas NYC officers will be the “locality” advisors providing the first port of call for businesses providing referrals to the Combined Authority “specialists” and others without duplication. A joint CRM system is already in use ensuring clarity of information.
The last quarter has seen a revival in Inward Investment enquiries. A significant investment was announced by Microsoft to build a 1.2m sq.ft. data centre in Eggborough at the site of the former power station; there have also been significant enquiries received and promoted by staff for Konect 62 (Kellingley), Harrogate 47, Gascoigne Interchange (Sherburn in Elmet) and Scotch Corner – junction 53 (Richmond). Agreement has been reached for a new occupier at the former Ilke Homes site in Harrogate. Formal announcements will be made in coming months.
Regeneration
In March 2024 the Full Business Case was approved by West Yorkshire Combined Authority, meaning that the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) has been confirmed. This means there is an allocation of £20.3m for Selby Station Gateway Scheme, £6.97m for Skipton Gateway, and £11m for Harrogate.
Construction of changing places facilities and refurbishment of existing toilet block at Selby Park is now complete and formal opening of the facility will take place once full sign off by the Changing Place Grant Team has been secured. This is part of the wider Abbey Quarter scheme.
Combined Authority for York and North Yorkshire ‘Gainshare’ funding schemes are being developed in line with recently produced funding guidelines. Projects that look to benefit from the funds are the Selby Station facility and traffic management upgrades in Harrogate. Funding is also available to develop the business cases of other projects including Selby Abbey Quarter, Wyvern Link Road and Ripon Market Place regeneration. This work will provide detailed technical information to support future funding bids to the MCA and to government.
The proposals to fully refurbish and enhance the Tadcaster bus station building gained Planning Permission in March. Work for this scheme is anticipated to start in September and be completed in March 2025
The enhancement scheme for part of Low Street shopping area, Sherburn-in-Elmet was approved by Planning Committee on 1 May. The team continue to work with the Town Council and relevant landowners to finalise the scheme, and secure licences for access to complete the works.
In Northallerton all work has now been successfully completed for the Heritage Action Zone and good progress is being made with the closedown reports. In Pickering work has now been completed on the construction of seven new small business units at the Thornton Road Industrial Estate. These have now been handed over to Property who are beginning to market the units and welcome the first tenants.
Following the positive community support for both the Scarborough Harbour West Pier and Whitby Maritime Hub planning applications have been submitted for both schemes. Technical design for the Maritime hub is progressing well and marketing of the facility continues. The Invitation to Tender for the West Pier construction is being prepared so that work can commence once planning has been approved.
Scarborough Fair and Wildeye projects both continue to provide cultural and heritage events and activities in Scarborough. The second Scarborough Festival, Scarborough Streets, took place over the May Bank Holiday weekend and the installation of the first Wildeye sculpture unveiled in March.
Building on the work on the Town Deal, the Scarborough Town Board and North Yorkshire Council are working together on the Long Term Plan for Towns programme. The Board has been expanded to welcome new members representing the community, cultural and heritage and business sectors and successfully passed the first milestone with the approval of the Governance checks by the Department for levelling Up Housing and Communities. Stakeholder engagement has started to help inform the Vision document and wide public consultation events will occur in May.
Tourism and Skills
The Destination Management Plan (DMP) is in the final stages of development. 2023 STEAM data (which provides a value of the visitor economy) is due to be returned in the coming weeks which will allow growth targets to be finalised within the document. A number of key stakeholders will be consulted on the final draft before formal approvals begin.
York & North Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) officers meet with Make it York, City of York Council and Visit England on a monthly basis to continue development of a Y&NY LVEP Framework, Growth Plan and Partnership Agreement. Input from the Mayoral Combined Authority will be sought once a Mayor is in place.
The Y&NY LVEP has recently been awarded a grant from Visit England to commission photography for the use of all partners, with the primary objective of having images of York and North Yorkshire placed on Visit England’s digital asset management system.
In a bid to attract more business event organisers to choose a venue in North Yorkshire, the tourism team had a stand at the Corporate Hospitality Show (CHS) on Tuesday 23 April. Feedback from the show was excellent with many event organisers commenting on the breadth of venues available within the county. Any learnings from the day will help inform the approach to the team’s presence at The Meetings Show in June.
Planning
Planning Policy & Place
The Planning Service continues to make significant progress on the Council’s future planning policies and land allocations:
· The formal milestones for preparing the new Local Plan for North Yorkshire have been approved and published.
· The programme of targeted informal consultation is underway with Members Infrastructure providers, the development industry and other key stakeholders.
· Work has begun on the preparation of the evidence base for the new local plan, including the procurement of the Housing and Employment Development Needs Assessment, which will determine the level of new homes and jobs that the new plan will need to provide for.
· The ‘Call for Sites’ consultation has been launched, which provides an opportunity for anyone to submit a site for consideration to help to meet the future needs of North Yorkshire.
· The service is on track to launch a public consultation on key issues and options for the new plan before the end of 2024 – the first major stage of consultation on the plan.
· The final stage of formal public consultation on the Selby Local Plan closed on 19 April and Officers are currently reviewing comments and key issues raised prior to Submission to the Secretary of State.
· The service continues to support the preparation of numerous Neighbourhood Plans, led by local communities across North Yorkshire.
· The first meeting of the new Development Plan Committee has taken place.
· A new North Yorkshire Statement of Community Involvement, which sets out how the Council will consult on planning applications and on planning policy documents, has been approved and published on the Council’s website.
· A new Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding register has been created.
Building Control
The Building control restructure has now been concluded and there has been great success in filling all Building Control Manager and Principal Building Control Surveyor posts with existing building control officers. We are now undertaking external recruitment for any remaining vacancies.
Following the implementation of the Building Safety Act 2022 which came into force on 1 October 2023 all building control departments and organisations are required to provide data returns to Government on their performance which is measured against approximately 40 key performance indicators that cover areas of the Building Control functions including Enforcement and Interventions, Risk Management, Competence, Systems and Controls and Complaints Handling/Appeals. This is something that is being worked on at the moment, so that this system can be provided when requested through the Delta data collection system.
In the future local authorities will be asked to be the collecting agency for the Building Safety Levy which are funds that government is collecting by placing a levy on residential developments across the country to pay for and recoup costs associated with the remediation work to be carried out or has been carried out to High Risk Residential buildings to make them safe following the tragic incident in Grenfell Towers. The Head of Building Control is working with the Planning Operations Manager, Finance and any other interested stakeholders to prepare for this task when the final arrangements are released by Government following the current consultation and approval by Parliament which is hoped to be prior to the summer recess.
Delivery and Infrastructure
The Maltkiln New Settlement DPD was submitted at the end of March which is a significant milestone. We have been notified that our inspector will be Clive Coyne. We have appointed a Programme Officer who, working under instruction from the Inspector, will organise the Examination. The expected next steps will be that the Inspector will issue a series of questions for the Council and objectors to respond to, to assist them in examining the Plan. We anticipate the hearing sessions to take place in the Autumn but this is yet to be confirmed.
Development Management
By the end of March the service had dealt with 218 major, 1777 minor, 3339 other and 11 county matter applications. In addition, we have also dealt with a considerable number of other types of applications, including prior approvals, screening opinions, scoping reports, trees, hedgerows, discharge of conditions, telecommunications etc. Performance across all application types is above statutory targets.
The Constituency Area Planning and Strategic Committees have now met 68 times. In terms of Planning Enforcement, since 1 April 2023 we have closed 1675 cases.
Planning Operations
The Operations team continue to provide technical support across the range of Building Control functions, as well as processing Land Charges Searches and requests for Street and Property Naming and Numbering.
COUNCILLOR DEREK J BASTIMAN