Column: Harrogate Borough Council Leader, Richard Cooper - Build relationships and explain aims

​In terms of the day-to-day things we want our councils to do what difference will we see immediately the new council is formed? Hopefully not too many. The bins will still be emptied, the Stray will still be cut, the streetlights will still come on and so on.

The Civic Centre will continue to house staff who will be delivering these services locally. There won’t be a chief executive based there nor other directors but the staff delivering our front-line services and those supporting them in their day-to-day work will still be doing that locally.

Over time I expect that the new council will organise itself differently. I am sure the new officers with their new responsibilities and new areas will want to take stock, see where cash can be saved through economies of scale and see how best practice can be replicated from one area of North Yorkshire across the rest.

Local groups who had a relationship with Harrogate Borough Council might be nervous that the support they have received with a very local council may not be replicated by a council whose headquarters is in Northallerton. They might also look to a new Harrogate Town Council to provide the support previously offered by Harrogate Borough Council.

Even if we have a town council – and we have not yet been told what it will do or how much it will cost – it will not replace Harrogate Borough Council. The funding will be significantly lower and there will be few staff. The idea that a new town council will mean that the reality that is a new North Yorkshire Council won’t impact our area is misguided.

My concern – which I have voiced over a long period – is that community groups, local charities and residents’ organisations don’t build new relationships early. When councillors and council officers know what a group does, know the people who run it and know the benefit that group brings to the area it makes decisions on funding, support and collaboration far easier.

And with the new arrangements now upon us and new officers, structures and responsibilities being named and formed now is the ideal time to make those introductions. So I would urge those groups who work with Harrogate Borough Council now, or who receive funding from us, to make contact with their local councillors and with new council officers. Demonstrate what your group has done, talk about what your group has ambitions to do, explore the support you need and what might be available.

Bear in mind that councils cannot support every group nor to the level each group asks. Everyone has to be realistic. Some years more resources will be available than others and in other years things might be a bit leaner.

This variable and unpredictable amount of funds and professional resources available to councils is what makes building relationships, explaining aims, objectives and community benefits so important. The voluntary and charity sector has impressed me through all my time as leader of Harrogate Borough Council. I want those organisations to be ahead of the game when the new council takes up the reins. I hope this article gives a pointer to how that might be achieved.