NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL

21 May 2025

STATEMENT OF THE CHAIR OF THE CORPORATE & PARTNERSHIPS OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

The Corporate & Partnerships Overview & Scrutiny Committee scrutinises the Council’s corporate organisation and structure, resource allocation, asset management, procurement policy, equalities, people strategy, performance management and the implementation of corporate initiatives. Also, partnership working, community development, community engagement, community strategies and community safety.

Since the Chairman’s last statement to Council on February 2024, the Corporate & Partnership Overview and Scrutiny Committee has met once on 3 March 2025, to consider the following items of business:      

· Transformation Update

· Localities Service Bi-annual Update

· Community Safety Bi-annual Update

The transformation update provided a progress update on ongoing activity within the council, with a specific focus on property rationalisation, IT systems consolidation and the Customer Strategy.

The Committee noted the update on property rationalisation work to date and agreed it would be helpful to have a better understanding of the Council’s new Corporate Property Strategy.  We will  therefore be receiving an update on the Strategy as part of our next Transformation update, alongside an overview of the progress being made with harnessing the power of data.

In regard to the Localities update, the Committee were pleased to note the completion of the first round of Parish Council liaison meetings and the lessons learnt from the process. Noting the  double devolution deals underway, the Committee agreed that for some Parish Councils, the onerous and bureaucratic process could likely be seen as a barrier.  We also welcomed the ongoing work around the swift initiative, empowering migrant communities across the county.

Given the recently agreed reduction in the Members Locality Budget effectively halving the allocation to each councillor, we asked that consideration be given to revising the bid criteria to allow the submission of bids for less than £300 (the current minimum funding allocation allowed). We agreed that at the same time it would be useful to assess whether the existing criteria remain fit for purpose and are adding value, and are continuing to support the council’s core objectives. Finally, we requested a breakdown of the core spending in order to have a better understanding of the costs associated with delivering the localities service across the county, recognising that the overheads will likely not change even though the Members Locality Budget has been cut.

The Committee asked that feedback on these issues be included within the Annual Review of Councillor Locality Budgets Scheme 2024/25 report scheduled to come to the Committee’s next meeting.

Finally, the new Community Safety Partnership Chair (NYP Chief Superintendent Fiona Wyllie) attended the meeting to present the latest Bi-annual Community Safety Update.  We were pleased to note a review of North Yorkshire Police’s website was underway as part of an ongoing Neighbourhood Policing Review, with the intention of providing regular updates online on ‘what you’ve said – what we’ve done’, and up to date information on area police contacts etc.  The Committee also welcomed the work underway to improve the links between Councillors and local police.

The Committee next meets on 9 June 2025.

COUNCILLOR ANDREW WILLIAMS