Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Keane Duncan, Gary Fielding, Richard Webb (substitute Louise Wallace) and Stuart Carlton (substitute Howard Emmett).

There were no declarations of interest.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice to Melanie Carr of Democratic and Scrutiny Services and supplied the text (contact details below) by midday on Wednesday 3 May 2023, three working days before the day of the meeting.  Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item.  Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:

·            at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);

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If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Leader who will instruct anyone who may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.

There were no public questions or statements.

Addressing the meeting, Councillor George Jabbour asked:

A number of North Yorkshire-based organisations within and outside the Helmsley and Sinnington division, which I have the privilege of representing, have contacted me about the Community Infrastructure Levy Grant Scheme that Ryedale District Council had run before it ceased to exist a few weeks ago.

I have already highlighted this matter to the appropriate Members of the Executive and Officers.  However, it is also important to raise it at this meeting given the significant impact that it has on several organisations within Ryedale.

I will start by setting out the full background:

Following the decision to implement local government reform in North Yorkshire, the Secretary of State issued a Direction under Section 24 of the Local Government Act 2007 to require a number of local councils in North Yorkshire, and also in Cumbria and Somerset which too were going through reorganisation, to obtain the consent of a specified authority before entering into certain types of transactions.

In the case of Ryedale District Council, the appropriate entity was North Yorkshire County Council.

This is a standard process that has been prescribed by law for a long time and has been applied to other local authorities outside North Yorkshire.

After the Direction of the Secretary of State had been issued, Ryedale District Council decided to launch the Community Infrastructure Levy Grant Scheme to fund local projects.  However, they did so without receiving Section 24 consent from the appropriate local authority.

The process of the CIL Grant Scheme and associated decisions received significant amount of publicity, including from the local paper, the Gazette & Herald, which thoroughly and diligently reported the facts.

Despite this, a number of organisations applied to the CIL Grant Scheme while incorrectly believing that Ryedale District Council had the authority to award the CIL money.  As a result, some of these entities had spent substantial time and resources without realising that their proposals would have to be considered by the new North Yorkshire Council after 31st March 2023.

North Yorkshire Council has a duty to consider each decision that involves spending taxpayer money according to the priorities and needs of the local community. This is what I expect the Council to be meticulously doing with respect to this matter too.  This may or may not lead to the same decision that Ryedale District Councillors reached.

Therefore, I do have a great deal of sympathy for the entities that had applied to the Grant Scheme without fully understanding the process or the timeframe and uncertainty involved.

I think that everyone now agrees that Ryedale District Council should have been clearer about the process or should not have proceeded with this scheme in the first instance.

Having looked at the individual projects that the various organisations applied to fund, I believe that these are all excellent.  I also believe that Members of the Executive would agree with me that they too would support these projects should there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 236.

Recommendations - That the Executive recommends to Council to:

i.     Accept the DEFRA transitional arrangement to implement separately collected food waste across North Yorkshire from 1 February 2043; and

ii.    Explore options for NYC to implement separately collected food waste at an earlier implementation date and to engage with DEFRA and Government to ensure that an earlier implementation date does not negatively affect our eligibility for funding.

Considered – Report of the Corporate Director – Environment seeking member approval of the DEFRA transitional arrangement to implement separately collected food waste across North Yorkshire from 1 February 2043 and to explore options for an earlier implementation date by engaging with DEFRA and the Government, whist ensuring that an earlier date does not negatively affect funding eligibility.

Michael Leah, Assistant Director for Environmental Services and Climate Change introduced the report, setting out the context around the issue, with three consultations published by Government in 2021, concerning ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’, ‘Introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme’ and ‘Consistency in Household and Business Recycling Collections’. Of these, the outcome of the ‘Consistency in Household and Business Recycling Collections’ consultation is still awaited from Government.

In December 2022, a letter from DEFRA to North Yorkshire County Council indicated that in the ‘Consistency in Household and Business Recycling Collections’ consultation they would be looking to mandate separate weekly food waste collection from 31 March 2025 for the country. However, within that letter to North Yorkshire County Council as the waste disposal authority at that time, given the contractual arrangements at Allerton Waste Recovery Park (AWRP) and the long-term nature of the contract, the difficulties with how this would fit with the proposals were noted.

Therefore, the DEFRA letter asked if the county council would be minded to defer the implementation of separate food waste collections through transitional arrangements to the end of the contract at AWRP in February 2043. Following receipt of the letter, clarity was sought from Government on the financial impact on New Burdens funding in order to help inform a decision, but this has not been received.

There are two options available, the first is to seek an implementation date ahead of 2043, with an option to go live in line with the rest of the country at the end of March 2025. However, as the council is shortly expected to consider options for waste collection harmonisation in North Yorkshire following the move to a unitary council, 2025 is not seen as practical and a date between 2027 and 2030 is seen as more suitable if this option is preferred by members.

The other option is to take advantage of the dispensation offered by DEFRA and go live with separate food waste collections at the end of the Allerton Park Waste Recovery Park contract in 2043. It was highlighted that it has been difficult to model the situation given the lack of clarity over New Burdens funding, but additional costs of approximately £5m could be incurred in the provision of a new food waste collection service.

Councillor Greg White set out that the report recommendation is to go with the 2043 date, however to work with Government around the funding clarity required and to also monitor the implementation of separate food waste collection service by other councils in 2025.

It was highlighted that there are carbon emissions savings associated with separately collecting food waste of between approximately 2 to 3  ...  view the full minutes text for item 237.

Considered –

The Forward Plan for the period 24 April 2023 to 30 April 2024 was presented.

Resolved -   That the Forward Plan be noted.