Revealed: Five key issues for Harrogate residents in opening months of the new North Yorkshire Council

Residents may be experiencing the biggest overhaul of local democracy across the county since 1974 but, as the leaders of the new, bigger North Yorkshire Council have always been keen to emphasise, 80% of the town's services have always been run from Northallerton.

But that doesn't mean the recent disappearance of the county’s district councils, including Harrogate's, poses no challenges to the new Tory-run authority responsible for providing services to 615,000 residents and nearly 33,000 businesses.

In the midst of a cost of living crisis, high inflation and central government spending limits, the new authority faces a bulging in-tray of matters to address as it begins a new era which it hopes will lead to greater devolution for North Yorkshire and an elected super mayor in the end.

The stance taken in public by North Yorkshire Council leader Coun Carl Les and chief executive Richard Flinton so far has offered confidence but no complacency.

So what are the top five issues which will impact on Harrogate and what is North Yorkshire Council likely to do next?

1. Costs and services

Less than a week after North Yorkshire Council was launched to run all of England’s largest local authority area, it faces an estimated shortfall of more than £30 million in its revenue budget for the next financial year ahead.

It argue that public services could have been placed under even greater pressure without the move to bring together eight councils into one organisation to create the new North Yorkshire Council.it is also confident that by joining up services and maximising spending power in its first few years, North Yorkshire Council is confident it can recoup between £30 million and £70 million, which will become annual savings.

The first few years may appear relatively straightforward with North Yorkshires set to receive £22 million in additional funding from the Government in the 2023/24 financial year,

The question is – with no seeming end in sight to tough economic times - can all services can be maintained to the same levelafter the new authority’s initial ‘easy’ savings?

Coun Carl Les has warned recently that it would require “difficult decisions and creative solutions to realise the multi-million pound savings.

2. Harrogate Gateway project for town centre

Recent months have seen one attempt after another to make space for cyclists and walkers in Harrogate's car-dominated culture fall like skittles in face of local opposition or funding setbacks.

The £11.2m Harrogate Station Gateway scheme to bring an extra element of cycle lanes and pedestrianisation to the town centre had seemed a racing certainty after a 2019 public consultation - the biggest in the county to date with 15, 500 responses - showed a large majority in favour of 'sustainable transport' options.

But each successive consultation by the county council showed more people backing the hardline taken by businesses in Harrogate town centre that, in their words, "Pedestrianising and removing traffic lanes is not the answer".

With the time ticking towards the summer when a final decision on whether to go ahead with Gateway must be taken, Tory-run North Yorkshire Council has passed the ball to Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors.

It says it will "be guided" by what the Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee says about Gateway at a meeting on May 5.

Since local elections in 2022, the Liberal Democrats have enjoyed a majority on the committee.

It's true, they did support Gateway in its early stages and won seats in the May 2022 county council elections partly on a platform of "making Harrogate and Knaresborough cleaner, greener and safer towns".

But, the stronger the opposition to cycle lanes has grown, the more the question of whether to go ahead with the Harrogate Gateway, the more the project has looked like a poisoned chalice to politicians of whatever party.

3. The future of Harrogate Convention Centre and Harrogate's crown jewels

With the demise of Harrogate Borough Council, ownership and responsibility for the ‘crown jewels’ of Harrogate’s heritage – the Stray, the Royal Hall, Harrogate Theatre, the Royal Baths, Crescent Gardens and Harrogate Convention Centre has passed to North Yorkshire Council.

What happens in the long run may be judged by what happens to current efforts to secure a £49m redevelopment of the Harrogate Convention Centre in the face of growing competition in the lucrative conference and exhibition sector.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive has previously given approval for the project to progress to the next stage of the plans.

But that was before the Government’s decision in January to reject Harrogate Borough Council‘s bid for £20 million to go towards the redevelopment.

Before local government reorganisation was put into practice last weekend, Harrogate Lib Dem and Conservative councillors put their differences aside to call on the new North Yorkshire Council to back the project for a major refurbishment of the ageing facility.

North Yorkshire Council now says it will make a final decision later in the year, possibly as early as the summer, guided by the new Harrogate Convention Centre Strategic Board which will “assess the most appropriate operating model” for the venue..

The question is whether North Yorkshire as a rural county will want to prioritise the benefits to the town that the Harrogate Convention Centre brings – or pay for the costs.

4. Housing and theLocal Plan

Harrogate’s Local Plan which guides the numbers and nature of new housing developments may have been a long, drawn-out process but, just three years after it was adopted, it faces being superceded by a new North Yorkshire Local Plan.

The idea, the new North Yorkshire Council says, is that a county-wide Local Plan covering at least the next 15 years, would crate a co-ordinated planning policy for building more housing and bringing economic development.

Despite enjoying the backing of all parties, political support for the Harrogate Local Plan has been fraying at the edges recently with concern over the amount of truly affordable housing and absence of new infrastructure causing both Tories and Lib Dems to voice their one-off opposition to particular planning applications for new housing.

Under the new system of local government for the Harrogate district – and the rest of North Yorkshire – the new Tory-controlled North Yorkshire Council has already decided that the area constituency planning committee of councillors from Harrogate and Knaresborough will be responsible for decisions on local planning matters.

Following its success in the May 2022 county council elections, the committee is now chaired by Harrogate Lib Dem county councillor Pat Marsh.

Some business leaders are concerned the process of formulating a new countywide Local Plan will leave Harrogate housing issues in limbo for years and hinder the chances of economic development.

Once again, this major issue is being thrown into flux.

That doesn’t mean anything will change in the flow of new housing developments on the ground in Harrogate, however.

5. Setting up a new Harrogate Town Council

Although there will be a main office in each former district area with around 30 additional customer access points located in places people already go, the question of local democracy means the new county authority is keen on the two key areas of North Yorkshire which currently lack a town council or parish council should have one.

That means Scarborough and Harrogate.

An initial public consultation last September showed 75 per cent of respondents backed setting a new Harrogate Town Council.

Significantly, support for the idea fell if it meant paying more council tax.

Since that result, the new North Yorkshire Council has launched a second public consultation on whether a town council should be created and revealed how much residents in band D properties are likely to pay to cover services – between £40 to £60 a year per household in extra council tax.

That sum of money would precept would provide an annual budget in the range of £1m to £1.6m to be spent on the new town council’s accommodation, employment costs, office and IT equipment, insurance, professional fees, the mayor and, finally, actually delivering services.

The consultation runs until May 5 and, if successful, residents can expect the first election for a Harrogate Town Council to take place in May 2024.

North Yorkshire Council appears committed to the idea.

Leader Carl Les said: “We are committed to ensuring that local voices have a strong say on issues that matter to their area.”

The devil, as always, lies in the detail.

"It will be for the town council to propose what they want to deliver," Coun Les has always been quick to emphasise.