Agenda and minutes

The Vice-Chair for the Committee Councillor Monika Slater chaired the meeting and welcomed everyone.  Apologies were noted.

Resolved

That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2024, having been printed and circulated, be taken as read and confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

All Members are invited to declare at this point any interests they have in items appearing on this agenda, including the nature of those interests.

Councillor Hannah Gostlow declared an interest regarding minute number 53 on the basis that she was a member of the Local Plan Working Group

Councillor Paul Haslam declared an interest regarding minute number 56 on the basis that he was a trustee of Yorkshire Causeway Schools Trust.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice (including the text of the question/statement) to Mark Codman of Democratic Services at mark.codman@northyorks.gov.uk by midday on Monday 11 March 2024. 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);

-       when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.

Report of the Director of Community Development.

Mark Codman (Democratic Services) introduced the item and outlined the

Committee’s possible courses of actions following consideration of the petition. The

report provided a summary of the petition and some background information to

enable the Committee to debate the issue and make a recommendation.

The Chair invited Alison Hayward and Adele Laurie to introduce the petition:

“The signatories urge North Yorkshire Council to exclude all the land found at Grid ref

429829 457681, known as H2 (Land North of Knox Lane) from the new North

Yorkshire  Local Plan. The explanation for their request is set out as follows:

That the Committee considers the petition and recommends to North Yorkshire

Council that the land concerned is not included in the new NYC development plan.

The changeover from Harrogate Borough Council occurred during the collection of

signatures and this has been reflected in the titles under which the petition appears.

The petition has been prompted by the strong feelings of people who either live in the

Harrogate and Knaresborough Area, or who work in the area and are frequent

visitors to Knox hamlet and its surroundings. They treasure the peace, beauty and

recreational value of the area.

It is highlighted that although the land concerned was added to the Harrogate District

Local Plan, it has always been unsuitable for development. The site was evaluated in

the Harrogate District LDF Urban Areas Consultation – Assessment of Ste Options

Volume 1: Harrogate Town (North East) dated September 2011. Nothing of

Substance has changed since then and the following are still applicable:

·       Developments would bring an unacceptable increase in traffic on several nearby suburban junctions.

·       There is poor relationship with necessary local facilities: walking distances to five particular facilities are all greater than the accessibility requirement,

·       The Special Landscape Area and Tree Preservation Orders were noted as

constraints,

·         Regarding Conservation and Design, Ecology and Landscape, all three items were awarded a red dot, denoting and Adverse Impact or High Adverse Impacts

·         Comments from Heritage and Design HBC noted that development of this site would adversely impact on the historic environment and/or local character, and

·       Access to any development would be on an unsuitable narrow country lane.

Similarly in 2016, HBC’s Natural and Built Heritage Assessment gave the H2 site red

ratings on five out of the seven assessment criteria and amber for the other two,

meaning the site remained clearly unsuitable for development.  It is not clear why the

site was eventually included in the HBC Development Plan

adopted 2020.

In rejection of a recent planning application, the Planning Officer relied upon the

Majority of the points raised above.”

Councillor Peter Lacey proposed a motion in support of the petition, the proposal was

Seconded  by Councillor Haslam:

“In the light of concerns as have led to the repeated refusal for development on the Knox Lane (H2) site this committee supports the case for serious consideration being given to it being removed from the local plan in the next local plan and that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

Presentation from the Senior Transport Planning Officer.

The following statement was read out by Mark Codman (Democratic Services) on behalf of Gia Margolis (Harrogate District Cycle Action):

“Good Morning

At successive ACC meetings Councillors have asked for updates on active travel schemes.

For many years Harrogate District Cycle Action has tried to help officers deliver on active travel. Yet there has been and continues to be a systemic failure to deliver any of these schemes.

At a recent meeting a senior transport officer observed “that the council’s budget for active travel has been slashed since austerity in 2010, leaving little wriggle room to deliver schemes without additional government funding”. Yet the same officer then declared how successful the council had been in winning government funds for active travel.

The undisputable fact is that the County Council has received many millions of pounds of government funding most of which has been spent – and much of it apparently wasted - on consultants with virtually no delivery of any significant scheme.

The following are examples of three small schemes which should have been delivered but still have no timetable for delivery.

1.      The Wetherby Road crossing from Slingsby Walk to Willaston Road by the hospital, is a vital missing link in the cycle network, proposed and discussed for over a decade and fully funded since 2021. Discussions, reports, consultations continue . There is still no timetable.

2.      The Oatlands Drive crossing. No timetable.

3.    The Bilton Lane raised table to the Greenway. A very small scheme for which contractors were booked to start work in August 2023. It was then discovered that another consultation was required and in January 2024 it was revealed that a safety audit, which officers were told last year wasn’t needed, was in fact required. That process has still to take place.

Other larger cycle schemes have all been abandoned - for example the A59 Knaresborough Road, Victoria Avenue, Beech Grove, Otley Road Phase 2, Oatlands Drive.

There are officers who are keen to deliver projects but it appears that the processes to ensure delivery in a timely way simply don’t exist, that and the lack of meaningful support from senior management add up to a systemic problem which will almost certainly continue to slow or prevent delivery for the foreseeable future.

What questions are you going to ask of the leadership team of the ongoing failure of any delivery of any project despite the millions of funding received over the last few years? And what changes will you seek to ensure North Yorkshire at last becomes a champion of active travel rather than a failing authority, as reflected, regrettably but deservedly, in its very low rating with Active Travel England.

Mark Codman (Democratic Services) read out the following statement on behalf of the Council’s Highways officers:

“North Yorkshire Council is committed to delivering active travel schemes and that commitment and particular demand in Harrogate has been demonstrated by a newly created post to have oversight and manage these schemes. The new Improvement project delivery  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

The Highways and Transportation Area Manager for Area 6 to be in attendance.

The following statement was read out by John Birkenshaw:

“The following three streets on Springfield Avenue.

1. Spring Grove (HG1 2HT)

2. Spring Mount (HG1 2HX) and

3. Springfield Mews (HG1 2HT)

Are all cul-de-sac streets (not through roads), where parking for residents has become critical, and is now at a premium.

There are ‘Access Only’ signs at the entrance of the streets; however, and bizarrely

the streets are designated for free, 3-hour Disc Parking, which is in direct contradiction with the ‘Access Only’ signage. This contradiction could possibly lead to legal action if a motorist appealed a parking ticket.

Guests staying at nearby hotels, (Majestic Hotel, Crown Plaza, and Premier Inn),

together with visitors to the Conference Centre and Royal Hall regularly park in these

streets, often overnight, in order to save car parking fees at the venues, that provide

ample parking for guests and visitors.

Residents living in these streets purchase parking permits to enjoy the privilege of

parking their own vehicles on these streets; together with books of visitor permits for

visitors to park their vehicles when visiting. However, residents regularly find there are no parking spaces for their own, or their visitors’ vehicles, (especially after 6pm at the end of the parking disc time restrictions) and have to park many hundred yards away, which becomes a serious safety issue for residents, having to content with inclement weather, dark nights and uneven pavements.

Sixty-one households out of then ninety in these streets have signed a petition

requesting that the free parking ‘Disc Parking’ signage be replace with ‘Resident Only’ parking, to ensure there are parking places for residents and stop abuse of parking by users of the nearby hotels and conference centre.

I wish to stress that this matter has become worse over recent years at the expense

of residents who not only pay council tax, vehicle tax, residents parking permits and

separate permits for visitors, to find they cannot gain the benefit of the paid for permits”

Mark Codman (Democratic Services) read out the following statement on behalf of Melissa Burnham (Area 6 Highways Manager):

“Officers acknowledge the statement of support by Councillor Lacey and would draw the committee’s attention to both the Residents Parking policy documents and the Champion’s Guide. Links of which can be provided to members.

The stages within the guidance states that the support of the ACC chair is sought for in stage one, after which an appropriate resource will be allocated, and necessary reviews would be carried out by the local team. It states in stage 5 that if a recommendation identifies a proposed Traffic Regulation Order with a wider area impact it would be presented to the ACC by officers for feedback, in advance of the final recommendation to go to Environment Exec meeting for a final decision.

The local team would be happy to pick this up separately with Cllr Lacey, to identify next steps with this particular case”.

The Chair noted that Members were unanimously supportive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

Item for information only, no officer attendance.

Amanda Newbold (Assistant Director, Education and Skills) attended the meeting remotely to present  the Annual Schools Educational Achievement and Finance Report and  responded to questions from the Members.

-        in response to a question from Councillor Walker, Amanda explained that there were varying reasons for differing levels of performance between schools or individual pupils, this included differing pupil cohorts and timetabling of core subjects (something for individual school leaders to design) – Amanda would be happy to approach schools leaders and gather information on how underperforming students are being assisted and how they are using their allotted pupil premium money. The earliest the new Knaresborough Manse Farm School could be delivered was September 2026 but would be reviewing this date following the primary allocations have been allocated in April.

-        in response to questions from Councillor Haslam, Amanda responded that there had been a rise in suspensions and exclusions in the last couple of years, Council officers had looked at individual case studies and discovered that these rises linked to wider family and societal issues. North Yorkshire’s Children and Safeguarding Partnership were looking at this issue and the wider vulnerabilities and this remained on the list of priorities for the multiple partners across the County.

-        Amanda answered further questions regarding future predicted allocations and spaces, staff retention and recruitment, including the use of child psychologists and the drop offs and issues related to core subjects of English and Maths from KS3 to KS4.

Amanda confirmed she would provide written responses to Members relating to the questions she was unable to answer.

The Chair thanked Amanda for attending

Report of the Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager.

Any other items which the Chair agrees should be considered as a matter of urgency because of special circumstances.

There was no urgent business.

Thursday, 30 May 2024 at 10:00 am.

Thursday 30 May 2024