Decision details

To seek approval to submit bid for funding

Approval for the submission of a bid for the LEVI Pilot Fund which, if successful will bring in £2.0M of capital funding to NYCC. A further report will be brought forward if successful, with full details, prior to acceptance of the funding.

Not open to call-in as Urgency procedure applies.

If the bid is successful, it will enable the Council to begin to address issues of social isolation, poor digital connectivity and climate change in our rural communities.

A range of schemes that fit the criteria and locations were explored with Climate Leads within North Yorkshire and its partner District and Borough authorities, schemes were ruled out based on criteria set by OZEV but also additional criteria that was refined through the Climate Leads group. These criteria included;
• Are they rural? (under 3k population)
• Is there a lack of off street parking?
• Do the estimated grid connection costs/capacity make this site prohibitively expensive or difficult to deliver?
• Is the area a ‘tourist location’?
• Suitability for testing their linked renewable generation capability and rural nature e.g. ensuring we do not select somewhere that’s predominantly in shade for solar testing or somewhere with no running water for small scale hydro.