Parish Council Latest

Cllr Felicity Cunliffe-Lister Parish Report
Kirkby Malzeard :  February 24
 
Transport/Highways
Nothing further to report.
 
Community Partnership (Ripon)
Another meeting was held on this, last week – it is beginning to take shape. The Ripon element of the group needs to take shape before we can establish how the rural parishes will be consulted, represented or involved.
 
Council Meeting & Executive Decisions
The full council meeting was held today and the budget approved. The LibDems motion to prevent the central government additional funding of £6.2M being used to shore up reserves and to be used for delivering services was not supported. The motion also passed on the benefit of this support in way of reducing the Council Tax increase but this was not supported either. As a result Council Tax will increase by 4.99% across the county – but in Harrogate less so as rates were already higher than other districts (so current rate of £1783 will increase to £1847).
 
Destination Management Plan
I await the draft and will report on this when it has reached me, it is due this month for sign off in March.
 
Locality Budget
The good news is that the proposed cut to the LB from £10K to £5K has not come to pass. This is now available to support the community again, for the new financial year.
 
Planning
Following a site visit to Field At 423306 473806 Laverton and I have passed on the PC’s concerns about the building that is being constructed. You have been copied in on the response.
 
Home to School Transport
The Council has commenced a consultation on proposed changes to the Council’s Home to School Travel Policy.
The necessary information can be found here on the Council’s website: https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/your-council/consultations-and-engagement/current-consultations/home-school-travel-policy-consultation  , together with an online survey form for your responses to the consultation and details of engagement events that will be held during the course of the consultation period. The consultation closing date is Friday 12 April. The proposal in the budget is that school transport is limited to the nearest school, rather than choice if school, within catchment.
 
Substance Use Survey
North Yorkshire Council have drafted an all-age substance use strategy with support from a range of partner organisations working together to reduce the harms associated with substance use.- The public consultation on the draft strategy launched the 2 February 2024, and will be running until 30 April 2024.
 
Substance Use Strategy Youtube Video Link: https://youtu.be/LMluCQT-9rA  
 
We are interested in hearing from the general public (both adults and young people age 13+) as well as:
 
•          People with personal experience of substance use
•          People effected by a loved one’s substance use
•          People employed to work in roles that support people whom may use substances
•          People from ethnic minority backgrounds
•          People in the military or veteran’s
•          People who identify as LGBTQ+
•          People whom have a disability
•          People with a rural residency
•          People whom identify as female
 
Details of the full strategy, accompanying short video and online survey can be found here: www.northyorks.gov.uk/SubstanceUseNY Click here to start the survey: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/interview/d0848af3-afce-493b-9db0-b9aaea546b40  
 
Easy Read versions of the survey and infographic specifically for young people (aged 13+) are also available. Read this on our website: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/news/consultation-on-draft-substance-use-strategy/
 
Funding for Community Transport Schemes
Good news on this front, following an Executive meeting where the funding was reviewed and the following proposals approved :
4.1 Engagement took place with all providers using questionnaires and discussions to understand the challenges being faced and inform future proposals.
4.2 The main issues reported with the current funding formula are:
• Funding formula has not been reviewed for several years.
• No inflationary increase has been applied for several years.
• The threshold of 4,000 journeys to receive additional support towards organisation
costs is no longer appropriate.
• Schemes advised it would not be viable to continue should existing reimbursement
rates be applied to post pandemic travel patterns.
4.3 In order to provide financial stability for our community transport operators and encourage
growth and the start-up of new schemes it is proposed to revise reimbursement as follows:
• End use of pre-covid data & reimburse using actual trip data from 01 April 2024
• End organisational payments and tiered rates for volunteer car schemes and
consolidate into a flat rate of £3.00 per journey
• Increase Dial-a-Ride reimbursement to £1.24 which aligns this with the average
Concessionary Travel journey reimbursement rate made for bus operators.
4.4 Funding will change as shown below with an overall uplift of 9%. This maintains support at similar levels to now for scheme operators and reflects the fact that there has been no inflation increase applied in recent years.
 
 
 
Cllr Felicity Cunliffe-Lister
Cllr.felicity.cunliffe-lister@northyorks.gov.uk
07592 114800