Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director – Business and Environmental Services

Purpose:  To identify local cultural assets.

Considered: A report of the Corporate Director – Business and Environmental Services setting out the Cultural Framework for North Yorkshire which had been endorsed by the County Council’s Executive on 8 March 2022.  The Executive had asked for the Framework to be submitted to each of the area constituency committees.

Mark Kibblewhite (Senior Policy Officer, Growth, Planning and Trading Standards) introduced the report and gave a presentation to highlight key issues within the Framework.  He highlighted that the Framework was part of an on-going conversation to provide an overarching direction of travel, and to act as a catalyst for conversation, partnership brokering and investment including securing both public and private sector funding.  The intention was for the new North Yorkshire Council to produce a Cultural Strategy and this Framework was a first step into something much bigger and better that was rooted in the work of the new Authority.  The Framework made a good case for the role of culture in supporting health, local economies and local communities. 

In response to Members’ questions, Mark Kibblewhite provided the following further information:-

·         Mark Kibblewhite was unsure whether the “Think Harrogate” study had been used in the Framework.  He was aware, however, that colleagues from Harrogate Borough Council and Destination Harrogate had been on the partnership working group which had developed the Framework.

·         There was nothing in the document that said that school halls could not be used as cultural spaces or that those spaces were not valid or important.

·         Each community network would decide the content and development of its own 10 year plan.

Members discussed the report and made the following points:-

·         There were many gaps in the Framework, for example, there was no mention of brass banding, the Bad Apple Theatre Company, and there were several gaps relating to Knaresborough such as the Castle, Knaresborough FEVA, and the great Knaresborough bed race.  In response, Mark Kibblewhite accepted the limitations of the audit but highlighted that the Framework supported the value of these events/work.  As such, when the organisation talked to authorities/Arts Council about what it did, it was supported by the work which had been done to highlight the benefits of that activity.

·         A Member advised that he was really disappointed by the Framework because:- it did not set a direction in terms of that which can now be used within the heart and the cultural drive which he believed would come through community networks; there were many gaps in the Framework; the Framework felt very top-down, whereas it should have been bottom-up;  and he had checked the credentials of the arts development company Mustard& who had been commissioned to develop the Framework and he felt that the two individuals in Mustard& had not had the skills to produce a strategic Framework of this sort.  The Member expressed that opinion that someone should have ‘pulled the plug’ on the Framework during the process because Covid had made it really difficult to deliver this sort of engagement process.  He felt that those involved had clearly struggled through to produce something; that time had moved on; and he would not be using it in his community network to think about how they developed culture.  He asked about the procurement process through which Mustard& had been commissioned and how much the Framework had cost North Yorkshire County Council. 

·         The biggest factor around deprivation was considered, by a Member, to be education.  However, education was not mentioned in the Framework.

·         A Member welcomed the report and its recognition of the issue of funding and the organisations which contributed so much to the culture in the county.  He cited Harrogate International Festival as a good example of a festival from whom other groups could learn and which the Framework was trying to reflect.

·         A Member commented that he was pleased to see that arts and culture featured highly in the Chief Executive’s proposed structure for the new North Yorkshire Council. 

Resolved –

(a)  That the Cultural Framework for North Yorkshire be noted.

(b)  That a written response be provided, to be circulated to all Members of the Committee, advising of the details of the procurement process through which Mustard& was commissioned, and how much the Framework has cost North Yorkshire County Council. 

(c)   That the comments which Members have made during this meeting be taken into consideration.