Executive
summary.
3
Thriving Places and
Empowered Communities.
4
Sustainable and
Connected.
7
Welcome to the quarter two performance report for the period 1 July
to 30 September.
The main report includes an executive summary highlighting areas
going well and areas to be addressed in the Council Plan themes
relevant to the remit of the Transport, Economy, Environment and
Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee:
·
Thriving Places and Empowered Communities
·
Sustainable and Connected Places
The report also includes the following appendices:
·
Appendix B: KPI data
Thriving Places and Empowered Communities
Going Well
Tourism
The Tourism service
delivered two notable campaigns ‘There’s more to North
Yorkshire’ and ‘Find Your Escape’. These
generated significant interest with ‘There’s more to
North Yorkshire’ achieving over 7.2 million impressions
through Out of Home advertising at London’s King’s
Cross and Paddington stations. It also achieved more than 1.5
million impressions via social media; whilst ‘Find Your
Escape’ reached 5.1 million impressions through Out of Home
advertising in high-footfall locations like London, Leeds,
Manchester, and Newcastle, and added another 584,925 impressions
via Google and YouTube ads.
Sustainable and connected Places
Going Well
Parking Penalty Notices (PCN’s)
– Enhancing road safety
Having more officers in the right place to carry out
patrols in the Scarborough team area (consisting of Scarborough,
Hambleton, Richmond and Ryedale) has resulted in a rise in the
number of PCN’s issued compared to previous years, showing an
increase of 54% in Q1 compared to the same period in 2024-25 and a
45% increase in Q2 compared to the same period in
2024-25.
Highways Customer Service Requests
Customer Service requests
responded to within timescale have improved in quarter two from
93.5% in Q1 to 95.1% in Q2, exceeding the target of 90% in all
areas.
Highways Successful Insurance Repudiation Rate on Closed Cases
Q2 had the highest
positive rate in the past two years of 86.82%, showing significant
improvement in performance. The target for this is 80%.
To be Addressed
Missed Bin
collections in Scarborough spiked in September due to transitional challenges
changing to a four-day working week, but it is anticipated levels
will normalise by the end of November.
Municipal
Waste to Landfill
Waste arising to landfill rose to 21.1% in Q1, the highest in the
past 2 years. This is due to
a planned
maintenance shutdown at Allerton Waste Recovery Park in April 2025,
followed by some additional works and a phased return to service
through May and part of June. Recycling,
Composting and Reuse performance also decreased by 4.4% compared to
the same period in 2024-25.
Thriving Places and Empowered Communities
Support
thriving places and empowered communities that live, work and visit
and do business in North Yorkshire
Economic Development,
Regeneration and Tourism
NY website
Work still ongoing with
the development of the Business North Yorkshire platform.
Photography and content development is underway to support overall
look and feel of the new site, and a third party property portal is
being sourced. Forecast completion date is Winter
2025.
Business engagement
Over the period 208
business engagement visits have taken place with the main reported
business issues being access to finance, networking and
connections, business planning and strategy, and sales and
marketing support.
NYC was involved in the
delivery of Scarborough STEM week which saw over 3000 young people
attending events over the course of the week, along with key
businesses such as Schneider, McCain, Anglo America, Alexander
Dennis, the NHS and many more.
Close liaison with
organisations and institutions within the skills sector continues,
with NYC being represented at the CU Scarborough Advisory Board,
the Local Skills Improvement Plan and the Get York and North
Yorkshire Working Board amongst others.
Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) / Rural England Prosperity Fund
(REPF)
Delivery of year 4 of the
SPF / REPF Programme is now underway following the signing and
legal sealing of the agreement in August. £5,137,410
of funding has been secured from the Y&NY Combined Authority to
deliver a programme of activity across North Yorkshire Council
including, a capital investment programme for local infrastructure,
a Village Halls Grants Programme, an extension of the successful
Multiply programme aimed at improving adult literacy and numeracy
levels, a Business Sustainability Grant Program, and provide VCSE
Infrastructure Support. The programme needs to be financially
and practically complete by March 2026.
Regeneration
Sherburn in Elmet Low Street Enhancement Scheme &
Tadcaster Bus Station Scheme
This project is now
complete and has been well received by local people and businesses,
with some keen to expand the scheme to the other side of Low Street
in the future. The Tadcaster Bus Station scheme is also
now complete. These projects include the first real-time bus
information points in North Yorkshire.
Station Gateway Projects
Discussions are still
ongoing with Network Rail to deliver a detailed scheme for a major
renovation of the station building at Selby, in line with the
scheme that received planning permission. Delivery of the scheme
alongside repair works to the station canopies is being considered;
however, this would mean the project would be undertaken in 2027/8
and not in 2026/7. A scheme for improvement of the station
forecourt area at Skipton has recently been drawn up and costed and
is subject to further assessment.
Work to construct the
transformational Selby Station Gateway scheme begins on site in
December 2025, with demolition and clearance of key
areas.
Town Investment Plans (TIPS)
Work is progressing well
on the Town Investment Plan programme. Officers from
Regeneration and Localities have reviewed the evidence base for 12
settlements across North Yorkshire. Stakeholder engagement,
to help identify the themes each settlement will focus on, has
started in many of the towns and public questionnaires for
Harrogate and Ripon are live on-line, with Selby about to go
live.
Plan for Neighbourhoods
Following extensive
engagement over the summer, the Neighbourhood board are finalising
the 10-year Vision and 4-year investment plan for submission to
MHCLG in November 2028. The next step will be to prioritise
projects
Scarborough and Whitby Town Deal projects
There has been
significant progress on three Whitby Town Deal projects with
restoration continuing on the Old Town Hall and good progress being
made on construction of the Maritime Hub and Spital Bridge
junction. In Scarborough, design proposals have been completed for
Station Gateway public realm and are being reviewed. The
next steps will be a new planning permission. The
cinder track junctions project designs are being finalised and a
delivery plan is being established with work commencing in winter
2026.
Tourism
STEAM figures for 2024
show that the North Yorkshire visitor economy is
worth £4.2 billion, up 3.9% on 2023, with 32.2
million people visiting the region: Economic Monitoring - Visit North Yorkshire
Business & Industry
The new Meet North Yorkshire website launched in July,
creating a comprehensive platform to showcase North
Yorkshire’s wide range of venues for conferences, exhibitions
and meetings.
The Tourism service
delivered two notable campaigns ‘There’s more to North
Yorkshire’ and ‘Find Your Escape’. The
“There’s More to North Yorkshire” campaign
delivered impressive reach across multiple platforms, generating
over 7.2 million impressions through Out of Home advertising at
London’s King’s Cross and Paddington stations. It also
achieved more than 1.5 million impressions via social media, over
147,000 views on YouTube, and half a million impressions through TV
advertising—showcasing the region’s appeal to a broad
and diverse audience.
“Find Your
Escape” initiative brought together 10 tourism partners,
including Saltmoore in Sandsend, Wenningdale Escapes, Kiplin Hall,
Fountains Abbey, and Beningborough, to highlight unique visitor
experiences. The campaign reached 5.1 million impressions through
Out of Home advertising in high-footfall locations like London,
Leeds, Manchester, and Newcastle, and added another 584,925
impressions via Google and YouTube ads. Engagement was further
boosted by a Saltmoore competition with 2,350 entries and
influencer activity reaching over 24,000 people to date.
A campaign encouraging
off-peak visits, called “Come on in”, is now
live, and the Christmas in North Yorkshire campaign has also
launched.
Visit North Yorkshire
were the Proud Sponsor of the British Gravel Championships at Dalby
Forest, support enabled the event to be live streamed, showcasing
Dalby Forest as a premier location for outdoor adventure and
reinforcing North Yorkshire’s reputation as a year-round
destination for activity enthusiasts. Over 1,000 athletes
competed across the weekend, with tens of thousands of spectators
attending. Since the event, the live stream footage has been viewed
more than 33,000 times on YouTube.
Visit North Yorkshire
played a leading role in coordinating the first York and North
Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), held on Tuesday
23 September. Allowing us to work on a regional level on strategic
projects to enhance tourism and drive the delivery of our
Destination Management Plan. The LVEP, now officially accredited by
VisitEngland, marks a major milestone in our ambition to grow and
support the visitor economy across York and North
Yorkshire. The inaugural meeting of the LVEP Board,
chaired by the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, brought together
senior leaders from North Yorkshire Council, City of York Council,
Visit North Yorkshire, Make It York, VisitEngland, and the Combined
Authority. Priorities included forming a partnership agreement and
shaping the LVEP Strategy. Collaborative work with partners has
already begun, including international travel trade activity and
asset library development, supported by LVEP funding. Monthly
officer meetings are now underway, and future board meetings will
rotate across the region to boost local engagement. The next board
meeting is scheduled for early 2026.
In September, we joined
forces with Make It York and Castle Howard Estate Ltd at the
Destination British Americas in Mexico as part of ongoing Travel
Trade engagement work to bring York and North Yorkshire to key
buyers and media from Brazil, Canada and the USA.
Key Output Stats
High Growth Businesses
The number of high net
growth businesses in North Yorkshire at the close of Q2 198 –
this is substantial increase on the close of Q4 2024/25 (159) and
is part of an increasing trend.
External Funding Secured
During Q2 EDRTS secured
£790k of external funding directly for EDRTS activity.
This is comprised of £640k from SPF / REPF between
Regeneration (Selby Market Place and at the Whitby Maritime Hub)
and Tourism, and £150k from Trailblazer for a programme of
activity around inclusive employment.
Sustainable and Connected Places
Develop more
sustainable and connected places across North Yorkshire
Environmental Services and Climate change
Waste
Operations
Waste
is reported one quarter in arrears due to national reporting
arrangements.
Municipal Waste to Landfill
A planned maintenance
shutdown at Allerton Waste Recovery Park in April 2025, followed by
some additional works and a phased return to service through May
and part of June, meant that more waste was temporarily diverted to
landfill. These contingency arrangements ensured continuity of
service while essential maintenance was completed.
Planned Maintenance
cycles during Quarter One
During Q1 in 23/24 the shutdown
period was 30 days, in 24/25 it was 32 days but this year 25/26 it
was 44 days. The site infrastructure requires regular
inspections/maintenance which can only be carried out when the
technology is not accepting waste. Over the last three years, the
planned maintenance has taken place in quarter one which is why
quarter one performance has been higher than other quarters.
However, maintenance is undertaken as required depending on the
lifecycle of the technology.
Household Residual Waste
In Q1
2025/26, residual waste per household increased slightly by 0.8kg
compared to the same period last year. At the same time, total
household waste collected has gone down, which is a positive sign
that residents are generating less waste overall. The small rise in
residual waste is mainly linked to items brought to household waste
recycling centres. This underlines the value of ongoing waste
education and awareness efforts such as the North Yorkshire Rotters
and the important role of recycling centre staff in helping
residents reduce, reuse, and recycle more effectively.
Recycling, Composting and Reuse
Performance decreased by 4.4% in Q1 2025/26 compared to Q1 2024/25.
While recycling remained stable (-0.2%), the main drop was due to
reduced garden waste, partly caused by dry weather - 46.5mm of
rainfall at Leeming Bar vs. a 103mm average (2019–2025),
limiting plant growth. Additionally, improved classification of
commercial, household, and non-household waste reduced reported
household recycling and composting.
The new countywide recycling service began
rollout in Q1 2025/26, starting in Malton with the introduction of
two recycling wheeled bins. While it's too early to assess impact,
the increased capacity and broader material acceptance are expected
to boost future performance. 
Waste and Bin Collections
Total missed bins
reported were 6,706, a slight reduction of 257 compared to Q1. This
figure remains higher than Q2 data from 2023 and 2024, which can
largely be attributed to the large volume of residents who have
changed collection day/weeks. Work is ongoing to reduce
missed bins with targeted communication to each crew and we expect
Q3 to see a significant reduction.
Impact of Four-Day
Working Week - Scarborough:
Scarborough implemented a four-day working week in September, which
correlated with a noticeable increase in missed bins:
o July:
274
o August:
270
o
September: 454
This spike is attributed to transitional
challenges, with expectations that missed bin levels will normalise
by end of November, and October serving as a transitional
adjustment period. Despite the changes not impacting garden waste
in the locality there was also some confusion for subscribers who
presented their bin on the wrong day, as that service at
Scarborough will not move to a 4-day service until the start of the
2026 season. 
Climate
Change
Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Data
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
(DESNZ) produce annual territorial emissions estimates at Local
Authority level. The most recent data published in July 2025 shows
a general decline of terrestrial CO2e between 2005 and 2023 in
North Yorkshire – from 8,061 to 5,604 ktCO2e (a 31% decrease
over the 19-year period).
North Yorkshire Council Emissions
In July 2022, North
Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) declared a Climate Emergency which
rolled over to the new North Yorkshire Council from April 2023. In
response to this, North Yorkshire Council set a target to seek to
become net zero in its operational emissions by 2030.
Emissions are broken down into three scopes.
Scopes 1 and 2 make up an organisation’s operational
emissions, while scope 3 emissions are further outside an
organisation’s control.
Scope 1 emissions are associated with
the burning of fuels by properties, fossil fuel fleet vehicles, and
fuel-based equipment (mowers, strimmer’s etc.) that are owned
and managed by North Yorkshire Council. Ownership of emissions is
taken where North Yorkshire Council pay the bill for the fuel
used.
Scope 2 emissions are those associated
with electricity usage at North Yorkshire Council buildings,
including EV fleet charging, where North Yorkshire Council pay the
bill for the electricity used.
Scope 3 emissions are associated with
activities outside of North Yorkshire Council’s direct
control. This includes business travel, emissions from delivery of
goods, commuting, and working from home. Previously, North
Yorkshire Council only report on three areas of scope 3 emissions:
business travel, electricity transmission and distribution
(T&D), well-to-tank (WTT). For Financial Year 24/25 emissions
from North Yorkshire Council’s water usage was also
calculated, although this was not included in the totals to enable
comparison between years.
All emission figures reported below have been
calculated using the LGA GHG Accounting Tool, using the UK
government’s conversion factors and the UK Footprint Results
(1990 - 2021) produced by University of Leeds to convert
consumption data to emission data (tCO2e). Schools and wholly owned
companies are not currently included in the accounting
methodology.
|
North Yorkshire Council Carbon
Emissions
|
|
Scope
|
FY 23/24 Emissions
(tCO2e)
|
FY 24/25 Emissions
(tCO2e)
|
|
Scope 1
|
14,676.47
|
14,820.23
|
|
Building Gas and Oil
Usage
|
7,962.48
|
7,357.58
|
|
Operational and Pool Car
Fleet
|
6,713.99
|
7,462.65
|
|
Scope 2
|
6,571.64
|
7,611.08
|
|
Building Electricity
(Including EV Charging)
|
4,365.50
|
4,752.25
|
|
Streetlighting
|
2,206.15
|
2,858.83
|
|
Operational Emissions
(Scope 1 & 2)
|
21,248.11
|
22,431.31
|
|
Scope 3
|
7,758.15
|
8,319.69
|
|
Business Travel
|
2,089.83
|
2,304.14
|
|
Transmission and
Distribution
|
568.55
|
672.70
|
|
Well-to-Tank
|
5,099.77
|
5,342.86
|
|
Total Emissions
|
29,006.26
|
30,751.00
|
NYC’s operational emissions (scope 1 and
2) for FY24/25 were 22,431.31 tCO2e. This is a 5.6% increase from
FY23/24. In total (across all scopes) NYC’s emissions for
FY24/25 were 30,751 tCO2e, an increase of 6% from FY23/24.
Emissions across fleet, staff travel, and electricity usage have
all increased while emissions from heating NYC properties fell by
8.3%.
Comparisons of emissions between years should
be made cautiously and reported increases should be caveated with
the fact that ongoing service convergence following local
government reorganisation resulted in data gaps and challenges for
FY23/24 emission calculations. Improvements in the quality and
availability of electricity usage data across the Council’s
estate is contributing to the increase in electricity emissions, as
more NYC properties and assets are now being included in the
emissions data for FY24/25 than was possible in FY23/24.
Energy Usage
A total of 62,202 MWh
of energy was used across all NYC buildings and operational
electric vehicle charge points currently included in property data
(excluding street lighting) throughout 2024/25. 63% of this energy
was used to heat NYC buildings and came from burning gas, kerosene,
and gas oil while 37% was used for electricity to power buildings
and charge electric vehicles in the fleet.
Currently, there is no way to differentiate
between energy used from the grid and that used from
self-generation on site, but work is underway to quantify this and
enable future reporting. The Corporate Property Strategy outlines
the council's approach to decarbonise North Yorkshire Council's
property portfolio. It includes mechanisms for identifying
assets which are the least energy efficient and contribute most to
the council's operational emissions.
On top of this, North Yorkshire Council used
13,807.5 MWh of electricity for street lighting across 2024/25,
resulting in 2,858.83 tCO2e of emissions.
Fleet Fuel Usage
Of the 2,980,175
litres of fuel used by the NYC fleet in FY 24/25, 98% was diesel. A
Fleet Decarbonisation Study is currently in its final stages and
has assessed the opportunities available for NYC to decarbonise its
fleet, including the availability, specifications, and costs of a
range of different electric vehicles and the practicalities and
costs of charging infrastructure.
Business Travel
Throughout FY24/25
8,476,313 miles worth of business travel were claimed from Business
Support resulting in 2,201.68 tCO2e of emissions. The
Transformation team are currently undertaking a review of business
travel mileage, and this is anticipated to produce recommendations
on how NYC can reduce this mileage.
Delivery Highlights
from the Climate Change Strategy for 2024/25
Governance
Climate Change Strategy Audit: An
external audit of NYC’s Climate Change Strategy was conducted
by Veritau to provide assurance that procedures and controls are in
place to support the delivery of the Climate Change Strategy. The
audit found that NYC has effective monitoring and reporting
arrangements to support delivery of the strategy. Where
opportunities were identified for improvement, these have been
implemented.
Mitigation
Warm Homes Social Housing
Decarbonisation: North Yorkshire Council was successful in
securing almost £22 million of funding from Wave 3 of the
government’s Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund. This funding,
alongside the Council’s £18 million of match funding
will support a programme to retrofit 1,664 council owned homes over
the next three years to a minimum Energy Performance Certificate
(EPC) C standard. This supports the Council’s ambition to
improve 4,500 homes to EPC C within the next 5 years.
Community Climate Action Programme:
Work on projects supported by North Yorkshire Council’s
Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) Community Climate Action Programme
ended in February 2025 after running for a year and a half. In
total 51 community groups and organisations received support from
the programme and £776,350 was awarded in grants. The
programme funded 27 community energy projects (of which 16 involved
improving energy efficiency and 11 included installing solar
panels), 16 decarbonisation audits for community buildings, and
other projects such as repair cafes and engagement in peatland
restoration.
Mayoral Renewables Fund: NYC was able
to successfully bid for the Mayoral Renewable Energy Fund for
£311,320. This will fund solar PV (total estimated capacity
407.5kWp) on 3 leisure centres – Whitby Leisure Centre,
Thirsk and Sowerby Leisure and Wellbeing Hub, Ripon Leisure and
Wellbeing Hub (Jack Laugher Centre). The energy generation is
expected to save £71,700k per year in electricity costs and
70.11 tCO2e in carbon savings.
Adaption
Coastal Strategy: North Yorkshire
Council’s Harbours team have been successful in their bid for
£90,000 to produce a Coastal Adaptation Plan for Flat Cliffs
in Filey and a Cayton Bay Coastal Strategy.
Supporting
Nature
White Rose Forest: With the help of 668
volunteers, 650,717 trees were planted throughout North Yorkshire
in 2024/25 as part of the White Rose Forest project.
Highways and
Infrastructure
Highway
Operations
Customer Service
Requests
The warm weather over the summer has
continued to depress the overall numbers of customer service
requests, with the number received in Q2 being almost 200 more
compared than Q1 and just over 2000 less than Q2 in the previous
year. Overall, 7102 requests were received in Q2. Previous
movements in customer service requests such as Q4 24/25 have
normally been linked to weather events.
Please note these requests relate to both
Highways Operations and Network Strategy.
Customer Service requests responded to within
timescale have improved in quarter two from 93.5% in Q1 to 95.1% in
Q2, again exceeding the target of 90%, with all areas exceeding the
90% target
Highways Inspections
(including footways) carried out within timescale.
Target 98%
The graph below shows
13,186 inspections undertaken within timescale compared to 12,438
during the same period last year, demonstrating an increase in
compliance with the inspection schedule.
Unfortunately, performance overall has
slightly dipped to 95.7%, this remains the second highest
performance score over the past six quarters, surpassing Q2
performance in 24/25 by over 6%. In addition, the second
highest numbers of inspections have been carried out over the same
time frame period.
Highways Dangerous defects
(P1)
There is an increase in the number of highways
dangerous defects being reported with 1,933 defects being classed
as dangerous in Q2, therefore needing to be repaired within 2
hours.
Highways Dangerous defects made safe within
2 hours.
The target for the percentage of repairs to be
undertaken within this two-hour period is 99%. Defects made safe on
time fell to 90.4%. This figure includes a number of defects made
safe directly by highway officers (which will not be reported in
NYH figures). Initial investigations indicate the root cause of
this decrease are connected to the suspension of a third-party
sub-contractor contract with NYH. The contract has since been
reinstated, meaning that performance in Q3 should improve.
Performance will be monitored closely by Highway Ops and will
reported on further in Q3.
Street Lighting Case
Management
Streetlighting Defects cleared within 7 days
has increased to 94.6% exceeding the target of 92% This is for NYH
to attend faults on behalf of NYC
Quarter two street lighting defects increased
to 503, although the total number of cases was lower than the
previous quarter two 24/25 which was 681.
Average Length of
Road Works On-Site Occupancy
The average length of road work on-site
occupancy for quarter two increased marginally to 3.65 days from
3.5 days. Total cases increased to 7928.
Insurance
Highways Successful Insurance Repudiation
Rate on Closed Cases
The target is 80%. Q2 had the
highest positive rate in the past two years of 86.82%, showing
significant improvement in performance. There has been changes made
to the way the data is recorded, and all closed cases now require
officers to include the reason for which a negative outcome was
reached.
Parking Penalty
Notices (PCN’s)
North Yorkshire Council operates civil parking
enforcement as part of the Traffic Management Act (2004), which
aims to keeping traffic moving and enhance safety for all road
users in the area. The purpose of penalty charges is to dissuade
motorists from breaking parking restrictions.
Scarborough area team (Scarborough, Hambleton,
Ryedale and Richmond) has undergone a restructure which enabled a
better focus and targeted patrolling in the area. Having more
officers in the right place to carry out patrols has resulted in an
increase in the number of PCN’s issued compared to previous
years.
The chart below shows an increase of 5,536
(54%) compared to Q1 in 2024-25 and an increase in Q2 of 4,988
(46%) compared to the same period for 2024-25.
Summaries on the progress of strategic projects and
transformation
Fly
Tipping KPI Reporting Update
During Q4, the data
collection system for Fly Tipping transitioned to Civica CX,
resulting in missing data for March 2025. In Q1, incident reporting
resumed, though some areas were still under development
county-wide.
As the team gains confidence in Civica’s outputs, data
accuracy has improved. However, the timing of Civica’s
reporting no longer aligns with the quarterly performance cycle.
For example, Q2 reports would lack complete data for September,
including closed cases and waste type classification.
To address this, Fly Tipping performance will now be reported
one quarter in arrears e.g., Q2 data will be included in the
Q3 report. This adjustment ensures a completer and more accurate
overview of performance, better aligning with statutory reporting
requirements and enabling more effective scrutiny.
Licensing System
Migration and Performance Monitoring
The Licensing Team is currently progressing the migration of
systems from the seven former district councils into a single,
harmonised platform (Civica CX). Historically, performance
monitoring, particularly for taxi and late-night/alcohol licensing,
has relied on manual data processes, which limited reliability and
consistency.
The new system is
expected to significantly improve data quality and accessibility.
Work is ongoing to assess the outputs from the harmonised system,
and it is anticipated that data extraction capabilities will be in
place by Q4, enabling more robust reporting.
Trading
Standards
Trading Standards High Risk
Inspections
Seasonal trends within Trading
Standards show that typically over the course of a year the
high-risk inspection profile changes, for example fireworks during
the Autumn drive the number of risk inspections up. At the end of
Q2 high-risk inspections undertaken were 36% against a target of
40%. It is expected that the slight short fall will be picked up in
Q3.
