Appendix 4 – Draft Recommendations for Rand Grange Parish Meeting

Contents

1.0 Current governance arrangements and history of the area. 2

History of the area. 3

Five year electorate forecast 3

2.0 Assessment of consultation responses for Rand Grange Parish Meeting. 4

3.0 Final assessment and draft recommendations. 6

Annex 4A – Consultation survey. 6

Annex 4B – Summary of consultation responses. 6

1.0 Current governance arrangements and history of the area

Current governance arrangements

1.1 Rand Grange is situated within the Aiskew and Leeming division and is part of the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency.

1.2 Rand Grange parish currently has 4 electors and 3 properties.

1.3

Rand Grange has 3 neighbouring parish areas as shown in the map below including Bedale.

1.4 Whilst the area of Rand Grange is parished it does not have a parish council and is referred to as a parish meeting. This means it does not elect Councillors or hold parish council meetings. Parish meetings must assemble annually between 1 March and 1 June and on at least one other occasion during the year. These meetings are open to the public but only registered electors of the parish can speak and vote.

1.5 Parish meetings can raise a precept to raise monies for spending for the benefit of the parish, although as Rand Grange is inactive a precept is not currently raised.

1.6 Rand Grange requested to merge with a neighbouring parish, specifically with Bedale.

History of the area

1.7 Rand Grange Parish meeting has no clerk or Chair and is a non-functioning parish meeting.

1.8 A request was made in April 2025 to specifically merge with Bedale Town Council.

1.9 Bedale Town Council are receptive to this and support the merge.

1.10 The Divisional Member, Cllr David Webster provided a response and confirmed his support for a merger with Bedale Town Council.

1.11 Rand Grange currently sits in the Aiskew and Leeming division which under the 2023 Boundary Commission Review of Parliamentary Constituencies, remains in Thirsk and Malton but will become the Bedale and Aiskew division. These changes will take effect at the next General Election.

1.12 After consultation with Democratic Services, it was suggested that a CGR be carried out for Rand Grange Parish Meeting. Following the Standards and Governance Committee on 20 June 2025, Full Council approved the terms of reference of the 2025/26 Community Governance Review, which included a defined list of parishes that would be reviewed on 16 July 2025.

1.13 As Rand Grange Parish Meeting is currently inactive, it is not within the interest of the public to keep the current governance arrangements as local electors are not currently represented by an active parish meeting. A merger with Bedale Parish Council will ensure that electors are represented by a parish council.

1.14 Bedale parish has 2664 electors and 1724 properties.

Five year electorate forecast

1.15 The electorate and 5 year electorate forecast for Rand Grange and Bedale is as follows:

Parish

Electorate (2025)

Electorate prediction (2030)*

Predicted electorate increase

Rand Grange

Bedale

2664

2694

* based on 2024 electorate totals

2.0 Assessment of consultation responses for Rand Grange Parish Meeting

2.1 The following table shows the number of households written to, with the number of consultation responses received, and response rate.

Households sent CGR consultation letter

1727

Consultation responses received

Response rate

0.6%

2.2 Consultation letters were sent to households in Rand Grange and Bedale as following the CGR request made by Rand Grange to merge with Bedale, these were the 2 areas under review.

2.3 A copy of the consultation survey can be found at Annex 4A. A summary of consultation responses received can be found at Annex 4B.

2.4 For the avoidance of doubt, the free text comments received through the consultation process reflect the views of the individual respondents alone. These comments do not represent the views of North Yorkshire Council and should not be construed as being endorsed by the Council.

2.5 The response rate in the table above was calculated by comparing the number of consultation responses with the number of households directly consulted by means of a letter sent to all properties in the areas under review. The total number of responses for the Rand Grange CGR was 10.

2.6 Of the 10 respondents, 7 reported that they lived in Bedale. Two respondents were community organisation representatives and 1 respondent was the Division Member for Bedale.

2.7 When asked if they were in support of a merger with Bedale parish 90% (9) said they did support this idea with 1 respondent being unsure, as detailed in the table below.

Option

Number

Percentage

Yes, I support this idea

I am unsure

Total

100%

2.8 Annex 4B summarises the feedback and the reasons people gave for their choice to merge Rand Grange Parish Meeting with Bedale Parish Council.

2.9 Most respondents commented that it made sense to merge the two parishes due to the small number of properties effected and the fact that it would then allow them to be part of a bigger Council.

2.10 Bedale Town Council submitted a response supporting them taking on some or all of the parish in the interests of seeing first tier representation for the area’s residents.

2.11 Cllr David Webster, Division Member for Bedale submitted a consultation response showing his support for the merger “Rand Grange is geographically close to Bedale and identifies with the town. I agree with the views of Bedale Town Council.”

2.12 When asked whether the proposed model would meet the needs of its community, the majority of respondents were in agreement, as detailed in the table below.

Option	Number	Percentage
Yes, definitely	7	70%
Yes, somewhat	2	20%
I am unsure	1	10%
Total	10	100%

2.13 9 respondents were either definitely or somewhat in agreement that the proposed model would meet the needs of its community.

3.0 Final assessment and draft recommendations

3.1 The majority of responses (90%) indicated support for Rand Grange parish to merge with Bedale. It is therefore proposed to merge the parish of Rand Grange with Bedale to form a single parish council.

3.2 The parish would be known as the parish of Bedale.

3.3 A map of the recommended parish area is shown below:

3.4 A list of recommendations can be viewed below:

Recommendation 1 – the existing parish of Rand Grange shall be amalgamated with the parish of Bedale

Recommendation 2 – that the new parish boundary is as detailed in the attached map.

Recommendation 3 – that the new parish shall be known as Bedale

Recommendation 4 – there shall be a town council for the parish of Bedale

Recommendation 5 - the town council shall be named Bedale Town Council

Recommendation 5 – that 10 Councillors are elected to Bedale Town Council

Recommendation 5 – That the above take effect for administration purposes on 1 April 2027 with elections to the new Parish Council to held on 6 May 2027 for a term of 4 years.

Changes to the electoral register required for the above take effect on the revised publication ahead of that election (planned for December 2026).

3.5 The recommendations detailed above will form the basis of the Stage 2 consultation which will commence on 19 March 2026.

Annex 4A – Consultation survey

Annex 4B – Summary of consultation responses