Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies noted (see attendance details/see above).

The Minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 18 November 2024 having been printed and circulated, be taken as read and confirmed and signed by the Chair as an accurate 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 Yvonne Peacock declared a registered interest in relation to the agenda item North Yorkshire Council's Petition Scheme - 'Rethink North Yorkshire School Transport Cuts' and issues raised in relation to that during the public participation section of the meeting.

A Member asked whether Councillor Peacock could be allowed to remain in the meeting to represent her Electoral Division from where the petition emanated. In response the Monitoring Officer stated that Councillor Peacock had a disclosable interest and, unless she had a dispensation from the Standards Committee, which she did not, it would not be legal for her to remain the meeting during the discussions on this matter.

Councillor Yvonne Peacock left the meeting.

Councillor Caroline Dickinson in the Chair.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice to Stephen Loach of Democratic and Scrutiny Services and supplied the text (contact details below) by midday on Wednesday 22 January 2025, three working days before the day of the meeting.  Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes.  Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak at this point in the meeting (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes)

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

The following questions or statements, as detailed below, were submitted by members of the public:

Rob Macdonald

As predicted, the new budget has just revealed that the claimed savings promised from this policy were pure fantasy. A meagre fraction of what you voted for and still no more believable.

Today I’ll explain why this shortfall was totally inevitable and why the model on which you based your decision was a smokescreen. Imagine I am offering you a hot drink. Tea or coffee? My shout. Which would you like? Please take a moment and make a real choice.

But wait. You can still have your choice, but now it’s going to cost you £10. Or you can have the other choice which is still free. You’re thirsty so you won’t walk away. Which would you choose now? Now look around. I am sure there are people in this room for whom £10 matters. How many of them would stick with their original choice if it now cost £10 while the other option is still free? If you think that anything less than 100 percent would stick with their original choice, then you agree with me that the policy savings claim was always a fantasy. Because the savings you voted for require that 100 percent of parents who currently choose a school other than their nearest, would make the same choice even when it is no longer free.

To get the four-point-whatever million pound savings, every one of those parents has to make the same choice rather than switch to the free option. If any choose the remaining free option instead, North Yorkshire Council doesn’t get the claimed savings.

You don’t have to believe me. It’s all there in section 5.17 of the Executive Report. Or you can ask Cllr Wilkinson. She knows I’m right. Perhaps you’re thinking it was not ‘£4 million’ but ‘up to £4 million’, whatever that means. I listened to your Full Council debate. No-one said ‘up to’. Cllr Wilkinson endorsed the full £4 million at that debate as does Stuart Carlton now. What’s more, if any parents do choose the free option, the very real costs of providing it are not accounted for. You need to make savings. You absolutely do. But they need to be real savings. Not fantasy ones. And fantasy savings are all this policy has going for it.

Our petition asks you to bring back catchment. Doing so could save more than just money. Our petition provides you with the opportunity to act now before reality bites. The budget confirms what we’ve always said. So please, send this back to the Executive and ask them to reconsider this policy in the light of all they now know.

Jane Parlour - Chair of Dalton on Tees Parish Council.

My name is Jane Parlour and I am the Chair of Dalton on Tees Parish Council.

I'm also the mum of four children who all attended their local primary, and catchment secondary, Richmond School.

Having discussed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 132.

A combined paper and electronic petition has been received by North Yorkshire Council and contains 2129 signatures of people who live, work or study in the county.

As the petition contains 500 or more signatures (but less than 30,130 signatories), it has been scheduled for debate at this meeting of the Area Committee.

The process for debating and responding to the petition is set out in the report.

Details of the petition and its aims were set out in the published report, together with a response from representatives of Children and Young Peoples Services.

The key features of the Council’s arrangements for receiving and debating petitions, as published on the Council’s website, are as follows:

·       Receipt of the petition is published on the Council’s website (which has been done in this case).

·       If a petition contains 500 or more signatures (but less than 30,130 signatories), it will be scheduled for debate at a meeting of the appropriate Area Committee which is the case for this petition.

·       The petition organiser is offered the opportunity to speak for five minutes at the Area Committee meeting to present their petition. Subsequently, at the meeting, the petition will be discussed by Councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes and a decision will be made on how to respond to the petition. 

The possible responses by the Council to petitions, as shown on the website, are:

a)    to take the action requested by the petition;

b)    not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate;

c)     to commission further investigation into the matter, for example by a relevant committee; or

d)    where the issue is one on which the council Executive is required to make the final decision, the council will decide whether to make recommendations to inform that decision.

e)    The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of this decision. This confirmation will also be published on the website.

In accordance with the arrangements described above, the petition organiser was invited to join the meeting to present their petition.

The statement by the petitioner, Ian Dawson, was as follows:

In 2023, when this council was formed as a unitary authority, the concern was that local voices would not be heard. Critics claimed that we would end up with decision-making that was disconnected from the communities that you are here to serve. Those who championed the change, many of whom are in this room today, promised residents that this would not be the case.  Now is your chance to prove it.

The roots of this petition come from the consultation that was held last Spring. 1299 responses and 147 pages of comments expressing concerns – almost all of them stemming from one single change – your decision as a Council to restrict free school transport to ‘nearest school only’. 

The warnings of the negative impact that this would have on families, schools and communities were all there 10 months ago. As was the evidence that it would result in more vehicles covering more routes, so more costs. But nobody listened. The consultation changed nothing and made us wonder why you even bothered.

In the Executive and Full Council meetings that followed, questions went unanswered, and concerns fell on deaf ears. You ploughed on relentlessly and rushed it through.

You weren't even listening to each other. Conservative Councillor David Ayrton who voted against this proposal, summed it up neatly when  ...  view the full minutes text for item 133.

There were no urgent items of business.

Resolved

That it be noted that the next scheduled ordinary meeting of the Committee would be held on Monday 17 March 2025 at 10am.

The meeting concluded at 12.35pm