Agenda and draft minutes

The committee Chairman, County Councillor Carl Les, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

County Councillor Carl Les reminded the committee that the meeting was being held informally and that any formal decisions would need to be taken in consultation with the Chief Executive Officer using his emergency powers.

County Councillor Carl Les noted that this was the first meeting of this committee.

The notes of the meeting of the LGR Implementation Board that was held on Wednesday 23 February 2022 were considered and having been printed and circulated, were taken as read and confirmed as a correct record.

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor Patrick Mulligan, Richmondshire District Councillor Angie Dale and Scarborough Borough Councillor Steve Siddons.

Scarborough Borough Councillor Liz Colling attended as a substitute for Councillor Steve Siddons.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have delivered notice (to include the text of the question/statement) to Daniel Harry of Democratic Services (contact details below) no later than midday on Friday 11 March 2022. 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.

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

There were none.

To brief Members on the governance arrangements for implementation of the new unitary council for North Yorkshire. 

To approve the Implementation Plan. (Appendix D originally marked to follow, now attached)

Considered -

A report on the Governance and Approval of the Implementation Plan.

Richard Flinton, Chief Executive of North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC), introduced the report.  He said that the creation of a new unitary council for North Yorkshire was a real opportunity to re-cast services, to innovate, improve and place people and their communities at the heart of what we do.  He noted that this would be a huge task as there continued to be pressures linked to the recovery from the pandemic, an increased demand for services and rising inflation and economic uncertainty.

Barry Khan, Monitoring Officer and Assistant Chief Executive for Legal and Democratic Services NYCC, said that at the time of writing this report, it had been anticipated that the Structural Changes Order would be in force by the time of the meeting.  This has not yet happened and so this was an informal meeting of the LGR Implementation Executive.

Barry Khan gave an overview of the governance arrangements for implementation of the new unitary council for North Yorkshire.  Key points are as summarised below:

·         The Structural Changes Order (SCO) defines the basic governance and operating principles leading up to the new North Yorkshire unitary authority

·         The SCO has been through Parliament, the House of Commons on 21 February 2022 and the House of Lords on 9 March 2022, and is due to be signed by the Secretary of State and take force by the end of the week

·         To date, all eight councils have worked together informally through the Implementation Board and Implementation Team.  With the passing of the SCO, the Implementation Board will become the formal Implementation Executive

·         After the elections on 5 May 2022, the Implementation Executive will be replaced by the Executive, which will consist of the newly appointed councillors

·         Under the SCO, all eight local authorities have a duty to co-operate

·         The Implementation Plan identifies the officers that constitute the Implementation Team.

[For the benefit of the minutes please refer to for clarification of the constitution of the Implementation Team at paragraph 86 of the Plan at Appendix D.]

Robert Ling, Assistant Director Technology and Change Management NYCC, gave a presentation on Implementation Plan, which expanded on the themes and issues outlined in the report.  The key points from the presentation are as summarised below:

·         The Implementation Plan must include detailed plans and timetables as the Implementation Executive consider necessary to enable effective implementation of the new unitary council

·         The Implementation Plan is a living document and will be subject to change over time.  After the elections on 5 May 2022, the new administration for the County Council may wish to revisit the plan

·         The Implementation Plan is rooted in the submission document to the Secretary of State that detailed the proposal for a single tier local government in North Yorkshire and reference will be made back to that submission as the plan is implemented over time

·         The Implementation Plan details the large amount of work that is required to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This item was not discussed as the meeting closed after item 4.