Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated October 2023)

Markets Harmonisation Ripon & Knaresborough

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Parks and Grounds
Lead Officer and contact details	Jonathan Clubb – Head of Parks & Grounds
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA
How will you pay due regard? e.g., working group, individual officer	Individual officer with advice from cross council professional teams.
When did the due regard process start?	September 2025

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)

The proposal is to recommend the devolution of the weekly charter market in Knaresborough to be operated by Knaresborough Town Council.

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g., to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

The former North Yorkshire County Council’s submission to government for the

establishment of a unitary council set out a commitment to pilot double devolution and

provide opportunities for town and parish councils that would like to manage services and assets on behalf of the now established North Yorkshire Council (NYC).

Twelve expressions of interest (EOIs) were submitted and after evaluation five were approved by the Executive on 17 October 2023 to move forward to development of a full business case. One of those was from Knaresborough Town Council (KTC), who subsequently resolved at an extraordinary meeting of their Full Council on 19 May 2025 that they agreed ‘to formally submit the Business Case to North Yorkshire Council to facilitate the proposed transfer of Knaresborough’s Chartered Market, subject to final negotiations’.

If implemented, the proposals would be the first major devolution project for the authority and also address the current annual subsidy for stall set up, with KTC undertaking this role.

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

Customers and traders should not see any substantial difference in the short term to how the market operates. However, with a devolved and locally run charter market this may create opportunities for development and improvement.

Council officers who currently set up the stalls, would no longer be required to work additional hours outside of their substantive posts’ hours.

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

There has been extensive consultation with KTC, stall holders and the relevant elected members of NYC in developing these proposals. There was strong support for devolution, whilst retaining certain elements, such as the stall set up for traders. Officers have attended formal and informal meetings with KTC to develop the proposals further.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

Under these proposals, KTC will be responsible for all costs associated with operating the market and will in turn receive all the income, with no ongoing costs for NYC.

It is anticipated there will be a modest redundancy payment borne by NYC in the region of £5k that would be met from the existing staffing budget associated with Knaresborough market. Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) savings of £12.5k per annum associated with the cost of stall set up cannot be achieved if devolving responsibility of Knaresborough Market to KTC - as the loss of income will offset this. However, devolution will help to relieve current and future pressure on commercial income targets.

In the business case submitted and through discussion, KTC have asked if NYC would continue to meet the unbudgeted cost of qualified ‘Chapter 8’ traffic management services to ensure the continuation of compliant road closures until the end of the 2025 calendar year, whilst their own arrangements are put in place. Based on the date of the Executive decision (21 October 2025) the estimated cost would be £4,950 (£450 per week) against the cost centre for ‘markets staff pay’.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age	x
Disability	x
Sex	x
Race	x
Gender reassignment	x
Sexual orientation	x
Religion or belief	x
Pregnancy or maternity	x
Marriage or civil partnership	x

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?	x
…have a low income?	x
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	x
….. are from the Armed Forces Community	x

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide
Craven
Hambleton
Harrogate	x
Richmondshire
Ryedale
Scarborough
Selby
If you have ticked one or more areas, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.
Knaresborough

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

No.

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	x
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.) No adverse impacts have been identified in completing this equalities impact assessment.

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

To undertake a post implementation review 12 months after any changes are made.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements
Post implementation Review	Commercial Manager – Parks & Grounds	Dec 2026		Engagement with KTC and site vists.

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

The equalities impact assessment of the proposals has not identified any adverse impacts should they be agreed and implement. A post implementation review 12 months after devolution has concluded would be prudent to ground truth the assessment.

Section 14. Sign off section.

This full EIA was completed by:

Name: Job title: Jon Clubb, Head of Parks & Grounds

Directorate: Environment

Signature:

Completion date: 4 September 2025

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Barrie Mason

Date: 15/09/2025