Agenda and draft minutes

To elect a Chairman of the Committee, to serve until the first meeting of the Committee following the Annual Meeting of the Council in 2023.

Resolved –

That County Councillor Pat Marsh be elected Chairman, to serve until the first meeting of the Committee following the Annual Meeting of the Council in 2023.

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County Councillor Pat Marsh in the Chair

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To agree that the Minutes be taken as read and be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Resolved –

That the Minutes of the informal remote meeting held on 17 March 2022 be taken as read and be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

To elect a Vice-Chairman of the Committee, to serve until the first meeting of the Committee following the Annual Meeting of the Council in 2023.

Resolved –

That County Councillor Monika Slater be elected Vice-Chairman, to serve until the first meeting of the Committee following the Annual Meeting of the Council in 2023.

No declarations of interest were made.

Report of the Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager

Purpose: To provide a guide about Area Constituency Committees’ ways of working for the period ending 31 March 2023.

Considered:  The report of the Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager which provided a guide about Area Constituency Committees’ ways of working for the period ended 31 March 2023.

Members made the following comments:-

·         The facility being used, to live-broadcast this in-person meeting, was welcomed so that members of the public could watch either the live broadcast, or afterwards, on YouTube.

·         Access to meetings should be as inclusive as possible for residents and guest speakers, ie by providing the options either to attend the meeting venue, or to dial into the meeting and to have the person’s image displayed on a screen at the meeting venue.  Meetings should also be live broadcast.  Ruth Gladstone (Principal Democratic Services Officer) undertook to report Members’ comments to the Democratic and Scrutiny Manager.

·         Non-decision making meetings of the Committee should be held virtually when appropriate, to reduce Members’ travel time and carbon dioxide emissions associated with travel, and recognising Members’ employment and other commitments.

·         In-person meetings of the Committee should be held when appropriate, as they assisted in building Members’ working relationships.  In addition, Members were relatively local and consequently the carbon dioxide emissions associated with travel would not be so great.

·         In-person meetings of the Committee might be held at locations outside Harrogate, eg Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Pannal.

·         The proposal, to convene a series of informal, development meetings, to build up Members’ understanding of the constituency area and the new operating model of the area committees in the new unitary authority, was welcomed.

·         Members asked for short comfort breaks to be held during meetings.

·         A regular briefing on discussions to devolve power to Area Constituency Committees should be included in the Work Programme.

Resolved –

(a)  That the report and appended guide be noted.

(b)   That the Principal Democratic Services Officer, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, take forward the comments expressed by Members during the debate.

Anyone who would like to ask a question or make a statement at the meeting should email notice of their wish to do so, including the full text of what they intend to say, to Ruth.Gladstone@northyorks.gov.uk as soon as possible, and by midday on Monday 6 June 2022 at the latest.  Speakers are each asked not to exceed 3 minutes’ speaking time and to read out only the statement/question of which they have submitted notice, without adding to or altering it.  No person may submit more than one question or statement.  No more than one question may be asked, or statement made, on behalf of one organisation.  The overall time available for public questions or statements is 30 minutes.

If you are asking a question or making a statement at this meeting but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Chairman who will instruct those taking a recording to cease whilst you speak.

Two notices had been received from members of the public of questions or statements for this meeting.  The notices had been submitted by:-

·         Mr Dunn, resident of Harrogate who had raised the following question, which was presented, in his absence, by Ruth Gladstone (Principal Democratic Services Officer):-

“Whilst ‘touring’, on foot, Killinghall parish, I stumbled across a remote North Yorkshire County Council depot and had various concerns about the way it was operating.  I have shared my concerns with the County Council’s Democratic and Scrutiny Manager but won’t elaborate on them here because this is a public meeting.  However, I would like to ask that a suitable team or councillor for this area visit the site and office to check on the suitability for staff, property and vehicles, to ensure staff well being and insurance compliance.”

A response to the question was read out by Ruth Gladstone on behalf of officers in the County Council’s Business and Environmental Services Directorate.  The response was: “In light of the concerns raised by Mr Dunn, Integrated Passenger Transport will request a visit from the property team to advise us on the suitability of the office accommodation and the facilities for the staff who work on site.  We will also look at the arrangements that are in place for parking the vehicles.” 

A Member suggested that County Councillor Michael Harrison (local Member for the Killinghall, Hampsthwaite and Saltergate Division) who had sent apologies for absence for this meeting, might wish to visit the depot and update Members.

·         Mr Tim Larner of Zero Carbon Harrogate who made the following statement:-

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to address this new Committee at its inaugural meeting.

My name is Tim Larner, and I am deputising for the Chair of Zero Carbon Harrogate, Jemima Parker, who is disappointed not to be able to attend this morning because of a prior work commitment.  She is very keen to build a strong working partnership with you in the years ahead.  We hope that this is just the start of a conversation about how best to tackle the growing climate crisis.  My role, within Zero Carbon Harrogate, is to lead on planning issues and I understand that planning is likely to become a key issue for you in your work in the coming years.

This morning I’d like to set out how we would like to work with the Council in general, and this Committee in particular.  As well as working with you, we will continue to be actively involved in the North Yorkshire Climate Coalition and seek to address the concerns of the whole Council.  Councillors and their new set of officers need to be properly equipped to respond appropriately to the climate crisis – with the right expertise, policies, resources and local action plans.   The recent report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasised the need for urgent action, particularly over the period up to 2030, if we are to avoid irreversible climate change.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

Purpose:  To invite the Area Constituency Committee to appoint the County Council’s representatives on various outside bodies.

Considered: The report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) which invited the Area Constituency Committee to appoint the County Council’s representatives on six outside bodies.

Resolved –

(a)  That the under-mentioned County Councillors be appointed to the following Category 2 outside bodies, each to serve until the Council Elections in 2027:-

·           Craven and Harrogate Districts Citizens Advice Bureau – County Councillor Peter Lacey

·           Harrogate District Community Safety Local Delivery Team – County Councillor Chris Aldred

·           Knaresborough Community Centre Committee – County Councillor Hannah Gostlow

·           Renaissance Knaresborough Executive Committee – County Councillor Hannah Gostlow

(b)  That the under-mentioned County Councillors be appointed to the following Category 3 outside bodies, each to serve until a replacement is appointed:-

·           King James’s Foundation at Knaresborough – County Councillor Matt Walker

·           Richard Taylor’s Educational Trust – County Councillor Paul Haslam

Note: The meeting was adjourned for a short break following consideration of the above item of business.

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

Purpose:  To enable Committee Members to review key data for the committee area and determine whether any issues highlighted in the data profile merit further investigation and inclusion on the committee work programme.

Considered:  The report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) which presented key data for the constituency area and invited the Committee to determine whether any issues highlighted in the data profile merited further investigation and inclusion in the Committee’s Work Programme.

During discussion, the following issues were identified from the data profile for possible further investigation by the Committee:-

• As discussed earlier during this meeting, the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency area had a poor record when it came to the local carbon footprint, as demonstrated by the figure of 9,578kg of carbon per person indicator compared with 8,133kg for the whole of England.  The Committee should therefore ask to see a comprehensive and ambitious programme of de-carbonisation, above and beyond that already in place through Harrogate Borough Council, and call for an urgent summit of interested parties to explore how that ambition could be realised.

• Whilst generally crime levels for the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency were below the England average, reports of antisocial behaviour (ASB) were 38% higher (30.4 per 1,000 population compared to 22).  Whilst not all ASB was youth-related, a large proportion would be, and this chimed with residents’ concerns expressed in various surveys and ‘on the doorstep’.  The Committee should therefore convene a meeting at which the Youth Services and the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner should be asked to give account of the measures they were taking to address this in a collaborative way across Harrogate and Knaresborough.

• The health of people in the constituency was generally good when compared with national averages, as would be expected in an area of relative affluence.  However, the prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) was 27% higher than the England average and rates of emergency admissions to hospital for CHD were 19% higher.  The Committee should therefore hear from Public Health Officers in the Council as to what prevention measures were being pursued to address this and how local Councillors could champion this issue.

·      Being admitted to hospital should be a last resort, but only if well-resourced and trusted services were available in the community.  This was particularly so for the very young.  However, whilst A&E attendances for the under 5’s were not high relative to England, average emergency admissions to hospital were.  Across England, for every 100 A&E attendances for under 5’s, 26 were admitted, but this rose to 60 in the Harrogate and Knaresborough area.  The Committee should therefore ask for data consistency issues to be checked and, if appropriate, seek to understand better why average emergency admissions to hospital for the under 5’s in the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency were high relative to England, how parents were accessing services for the very young in the constituency, and what measures could be taken to support and reassure parents at times of concern for their children’s health.

• Households in fuel poverty were slightly below the England average at 12% compared to 13.5%.  However, when one considered that only 1.5% of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

Purpose:  To enable Committee Members to review this consultation and determine what action to take in response.

Considered:  The report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) which invited the Committee to review a consultation about North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Risk and Resource Model 2022/25 and to determine what action it wished to take in response.

During discussion, Members commented that they would particularly welcome detailed statistics regarding:-

·         all incidents to which Harrogate Fire Station was called-out (eg including road traffic accidents) both day-time and night-time; and

·         the severity of the incidents to which Harrogate Fire Station was called-out.

A Member also queried whether NYFRS was able to insist that owners of property, at which automatic fire alarms were located, had CCTV in that property.

Resolved -

(a)  That a special, formal, in-person meeting of the Committee be convened to develop its response to the consultation.

(b)  That the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, and the Chief Fire Officer, both be invited to attend.

Report of the Principal Democratic Services Officer

Purpose:  To ask Members to consider, amend and add to the Committee’s work programme.

Considered: (i) The report of the Principal Democratic Services Officer which invited Members to consider, amend and add to the Committee’s Work Programme; and (ii) a suggestion made orally that the Committee might wish to convene a meeting on Thursday 10 November 2022 when Andrew Jones MP might be available for a discussion with the Committee.

During discussion about possible issues for the Work Programme, the following topics were suggested:-

·         Members wished to see responsibility for planning and district development control being devolved to area constituency committees. 

·         Regular updates/briefings on progress of local government reorganisation, including the work of the working groups.

·         Update on how the various proposals within the Harrogate Highway Congestion Study were progressing, including active travel initiatives.

·         A briefing on how the County-wide update on Beyond Carbon, which was due later in the year, impacted on the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency area.

·         In addition to Zero Carbon Harrogate, other stakeholders within the local communities of Harrogate and Knaresborough and Boroughbridge should be invited.

·         Invite the Chief Executive of Harrogate District Hospital or the Chairman of the Board of Governors to provide a briefing on the recovery from the Covid pandemic.

·         Invite a representative of the Harrogate Bid to express the organisation’s views.

·         A briefing on implementation of the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (which was part of the Parameters Plan and, in turn, part of the Local Plan).

The Principal Democratic Services Officer undertook to update the Chairman and Vice-Chairman on the implementation of the Committee’s decisions.

Resolved –

(a)  That the Work Programme be approved, subject to the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Principal Democratic Services Officer, in liaison, considering and determining the suggestions raised at this meeting, as recorded in the preamble to this Minute.

(b)  That a virtual special meeting of the Committee be convened for Thursday 10 November 2022 at 10am, to be held using Microsoft Teams, for the purpose of having a discussion with Andrew Jones MP and that arrangements be made for the meeting to be live-streamed.

(c)   That a sub group be established to consider the views which Zero Carbon Harrogate presented to this meeting during the item “Public Questions or Questions”, comprising Councillor Arnold Warneken to chair, and Councillors Paul Haslam, Mike Schofield and Pat Marsh, together with relevant officers of the County Council.  The sub group shall meet informally in private and report to future meetings of the Committee.

(d)  That the change of start time of the Committee’s meeting on Thursday 12 January 2023, to 3.00pm, be noted.

Thursday 15 September 2022 at 10.00am.

Members are asked whether they wish the next meeting to be held either as a virtual meeting by MS Teams, or as an in-person meeting.

Resolved –

That the next ordinary meeting of the Committee, scheduled for Thursday 15 September 2022 at 10am, be held in the Council Chamber at Harrogate Civic Centre.