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
Economic
Development
Inclusive Employment Trailblazer
In Q3 consultants
‘People Savi’ of Filey, were successfully appointed to
deliver elements of Business North Yorkshire employer engagement
and support project. People Savi delivered sectorial focused
workshops in early November exploring business needs and
expectations, explored opportunities, shared insights and started
the process of co-designing practical solutions for inclusive
employment.
The 5 sector-focused
inclusive employment groups were:
·
Agri-Food/Agri-Tech.
·
Construction/Engineering/Manufacturing.
·
Digital/Cyber and AI.
·
Health.
·
Visitor Economy.
These sessions will form
the basis of the next phases of work which will include sector
specific best practice guides, and case studies from businesses
with strong examples and working practices.
The Inclusive Employment
Conference is scheduled for March 2026.
Business Engagement
Over 125 business
engagement visits were completed during Q3, providing insight into
current trading conditions. Anecdotal feedback indicates that
overall business confidence remains low, with established
businesses showing resilience but adopting a cautious approach.
Smaller businesses appear more vulnerable, with some closing or
scaling back operations, resulting in redundancies. Exporting
businesses are also facing significant challenges, including trade
issues with the EU and US and increased administrative burdens,
with some avoiding export markets entirely.
Business North Yorkshire – Business Engagement
Three new tenants were
welcomed to our Business Centres during Q3 and 10 events
including breakfast briefings, coffee mornings and lunch and learn
events, were held providing information and networking
opportunities to 175 people including both tenants and the wider
business community. Two Business North Yorkshire Newsletters
were issued in Q3 (October and November) to just under 4,300
business each time. The ‘click through
rate’ remains steady
which demonstrates positive interaction by the recipients
and our content, and the rates are good in comparison to local
government averages.
Tourism
In October, Restaurant
Weeks in Harrogate and Selby, Tadcaster and Sherburn-in-Elmet were
successfully delivered. In Harrogate, 28 businesses took part with
30 offers, and in the Selby area, 13 businesses took part with a
total of 18 offers.
The tourism service also
launched an autumn/ winter marketing campaign called
“Come On In” encouraging off-peak visits.
This campaign included 10 partners. A Christmas campaign was also
launched – with the launch video receiving just under 250K
views on YouTube.
In November, the first
meeting of the Visit North Yorkshire Advisory Group was
hosted. The tourism service also co-hosted a Nordics
familiarisation visit alongside VisitEngland and Make it
York as part of Travel Trade activity including visits to Castle
Howard and Malton. The service also attended the Steve Reed Tourism
Group Travel Roadshow to connect with group travel and coach
operators.
Key Economic Development, Regeneration and Tourism
Statistics.
Visit North Yorkshire Data
During Q3 (Oct –
Dec 2025) 331,097 sessions were recorded on the Visit North
Yorkshire website.
Average hotel occupancy
in the three-month period of September and November 2025 was 80.7%,
this is slightly below the average for the same three-month period
in 2024 (82.2%).
Footfall Data
Footfall and dwell time
data has not been included in Q3 reporting due to some ongoing
queries with the data that need to be fully understood before
publishing.
Vacancy Rate (Town Centre) (All Vacancy Rate)
GB All vacancy rate:
13.4%
All towns had a lower vacancy rate than the Great Britain average,
except Scarborough and Malton – this was the case for
the previous KPI return. Vacancy in most town centres has
either increased marginally or remained the same in
recent months.
With specific reference to Scarborough there
are three points that need to be considered:
- High
Street Vacancy rate is only at 15.8% once Brunswick is
removed
-
Non-Highstreet vacancies are a genuine challenge due to the volume
of commercial properties away from the main shopping area. These
present a major opportunity to increase the number of
dwellings.
- The
Highstreet alone (removing Brunswick) has seen a fall in vacancy
rates, from 18.9% in 2024 and now 15.8% in 2025. This
shows progress in the right direction, and we know where the issues
are, and are proactively addressing them.
Please note these figures without the Brunswick Centre included are
different to the figures shown in the table above which covers
the wider Scarborough town centre.
Officers are aware of the
higher vacancy rate figure in Malton and are reviewing this along
with local partners and stakeholders to understand the potential
reasons and seek possible solutions.
Sustainable and Connected Places
Develop more
sustainable and connected places across North Yorkshire
Environment
Services and Climate
change
Highways
Highways
Operations
Customer Service
Requests
The overall number of
requests has decreased in Quarter 3 compared to Q2 by 693. There
are types of requests that have been increasing throughout the
year, for example there were 1039 ‘Gully Blocked/Standing
Water’ requests in Q3 alone, compared to 361 in Q1 and 748 in
Q2. Conversely for ‘Overgrown Vegetation’ requests
there has been an expected decrease due to seasonal changes; for
both Q1 and Q2 combined there were 2122 requests, but in Q3 that
number has decreased to 540. Q3 has seen an increase in
‘Winter Service Operations' requests, the requests for Q1 and
Q2 totalled 71 times, whereas in Q3 this number has increased to
263 – the requests are categorised by “Gritting”
and “Grit/Salt bin”. Please note Customer Service
Requests relate to both Highways Operations and Network
Strategy.
Customer service requests responded to within timescale has shown
an improvement in quarter 3 to 92.3%, compared to 86% in Q2.
Highways
Inspections (including footways) carried out within
timescale.
Target
98%
The graph below
shows 11,247 inspections undertaken within timescale compared to
10,803 during the same period last year, showing an increase in
compliance with the inspection schedule.
Performance has
improved in Q3 to 98.3%, exceeding the target of 98%. The number of
inspections performed is also following a pattern seen since Q1
24/25 in that the number decreases through the year, possibly due
to a deterioration in good weather and daylight.
Highways Dangerous
defects
There
is an increase in the number of highways dangerous defects being
reported, with 2329 defects being classed as dangerous in Q3 and
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 increased to 93.7% from 92.6% in
Q2. This figure includes several defects made safe directly by
highway officers (which will not be reported in NYH figures).
Following Q2s decrease due to a sub-contractor’s performance,
there has been a recovery in the affected Highways Officers area
which is a factor in the increase. Each area is continuing to be
monitored to ensure high-performance levels are
maintained.
Street Lighting
Case Management
Streetlighting defects repaired within 7 days has maintained its
level at 97.4%, continuing to exceed the target of 92%. This is for
NYH to attend faults on behalf of NYC.
Highways Successful Insurance Repudiation Rate
on Closed Cases
In Quarter 3, 83.7% of claims had a
positive outcome. This is above the target of 80%. However, this is
a reduction on the Q2 figure of 86.8%, which was the highest
positive rate for two years. There were 86 closed cases within Q3
which is the lowest level since Q4 24/25 closed with 82 cases.
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.
Average Length of
Road Works On-Site Occupancy
The average length of road work on site occupancy for quarter 3
stayed at 3.65, as it was in Q2. Total cases decreased slightly
from 7,928 to 7,860. 
Parking
PCN (Penalty Charge
Notices)
The
graph below illustrates a significant increase in Penalty Charge
Notices (PCNs) across the county. Harrogate, Craven, and Selby
recorded a 39% rise (an additional 2,277 PCNs) compared to the same
quarter last year, marking the highest quarterly figure since
records began in 2023. Similarly, Scarborough, Hambleton, Ryedale,
and Richmondshire experienced a 20.7% increase (2,194 PCNs) over
the same period, despite being slightly lower than previous
quarters this year.
Three primary factors have contributed to this improvement in
performance:
1.
Service Restructure: The Parking Service underwent a
comprehensive restructure, redefining managerial, supervisory, and
Civil Enforcement Officer roles. This realignment improved
communication channels and created a more cohesive operational
framework. Additionally, legacy rota systems previously fragmented
under district models were reviewed and balanced, ensuring
continuity and efficiency across the region.
2.
Strategic Recruitment: Recruitment has been critical in
supporting the new operational model. To meet both public and
Council expectations for Civil Parking Enforcement, workforce
numbers have increased to 50% of the new model requirements, with a
full review scheduled for the end of the 2026/27 financial year.
While still in the early stages, initial results indicate positive
progress.
3.
Enhanced Management Practices: Strong leadership has played
a pivotal role in driving performance improvements. Beyond the
benefits of the restructure, the parking management team has
optimised patrol and shift patterns and strengthened administrative
processes, including permits, appeals, FOIs, complaints, and
financial management. Given that the service generates
approximately £25.5 million (gross) in revenue with a
relatively lean team, these enhancements have been instrumental in
achieving operational success.
Regulation
Fly
Tipping
Further to the Q2 report, this dataset
represents the first set of fly-tipping figures captured using the
new Civica CX system, which reports one quarter in arrears.
For Q2, 871 fly-tipping incidents were
recorded. While this is lower than the previous two quarters, it
remains higher than figures reported in the same period over the
past two years. This variance may be attributed to the enhanced
robustness of the Civica system, or it could reflect transitional
challenges as the service continues to adapt and train staff on the
system’s capabilities.
Moving forward, there will be an increased
focus on fully understanding the system and monitoring incident
trends. A further update will be provided in Quarter 4.
Note:
Now reporting one quarter in arrears due to Civica CX reporting
cycles
Missed Bin
Collections
Overall Performance
In Q2,
it was reported that the number of missed bins remained higher than
the previous year, primarily due to transitional challenges. At
that time, it was anticipated that Q3 would see a significant
reduction as improvement measures took effect.
This prediction has materialised. During Q3,
the number of missed bins decreased by 45%, equating to 3,028 fewer
missed collections. A total of 3,678 missed bins were reported this
quarter, representing 0.17% of all collections.
While this marks a substantial improvement, it
is important to note that Q3 still reflects the highest missed bin
figure for this period over the past three years. Work is ongoing
to reduce the number of missed bins across all localities, with
particular attention on Harrogate, which has historically
experienced a disproportionately high number relative to its size.
Recent improvements in Harrogate have been a major contributor to
the overall reduction in missed collections. Efforts are continuing
to ensure these gains are sustained and embedded as a permanent
trend.
Bin collections remained resilient during challenging winter
weather conditions.
Despite a week of heavy snow, ice and frost in November, most
scheduled collections were made on time despite the challenging
conditions. Areas that were impacted the most were Richmond
in Upper Swaledale. The scheduled collections for Wednesday 19th
November could not be completed and were instead collected on
Tuesday 25th November, as the area did not fully thaw until the
following week. These missed bins typically generate very few
complaints, as residents understand the challenges, and based on
past experience, know that collections will return as soon as
conditions are safe.
In Northallerton, the rural round was unable to collect on
Wednesday 19th November, however returned just three days later
Saturday 22nd November. A small number of villages, including
Kilburn, Linton-on-Ouse, Coxwold and Beningbrough, experienced
partial missed collections due to ice on the 19th and 20th. Most of
these were completed by Friday 21 November, with one or two
remaining areas collected on Saturday 22 November.
Missed bins by type – Refuse,
Recycling and Garden waste
The totals for missed bins by
type in Q3 were: Refuse 1,849, Recycling 1,146 and Garden
683. The season ended for garden bin collections on
4th December and will re-start at the beginning of March
2026.
Get your
garden waste license
Residents who live in North
Yorkshire, can now pay for a garden waste licence for the 2026
season. A licence costs £52 for garden waste collections
between March and early December. Visit the garden waste
page for more information.
Waste
Reported
one quarter in arrears
Residual
household waste per household
(Kg/household)
Household residual waste per
household has increased compared to Q2 24/25 by 1.78kg per
household. Both kerbside collected, and residual tonnage delivered
to the household waste recycling centres (HWRC’s) has
increased.
Percentage of Household waste recycled/sent for
reuse, recycling or composting
Recycling, reuse and composting
performance has decreased compared to Q2 24/25, due mainly to a
reduction in composting tonnages. Recycling performance at the
kerbside and HWRCs has increased in Q2 25/26, an increase of 240t
at kerbside, and 350t at HWRCs (excluding inert and plasterboard as
not classed as household wastes), compared to Q2 24/25. Following a
hot summer with high average temperatures and little rain until
September 202, this impacted on composting tonnages.
Percentage
of waste arising to landfill
3% of waste was
landfilled during Q2 2025/26, which is a decrease of 0.6% when
compared to Q2 2024/25. Following the planned maintenance outage in
Q1, availability of the Energy from Waste plant at AWRP averaged
over 90% during Q2 with almost 94% of Contract Waste being diverted
away from landfill.
