Parish Council Latest

Cllr Felicity Cunliffe-Lister Parish Report

Kirkby Malzeard, Laverton & Dalowgill : July 2023

Transport

Community Bus : I am have held some really useful meetings with other community bus providers in the last few weeks. There is certainly bus capacity to cover the Mashamshire area, using an existing bus. This will be a useful pilot in terms of getting the infrastructure in place to get another bus up and running to cover the other areas within Masham & Fountains (including KMLD).

20 is Plenty : there has been an announcement at County Hall by Cllr Duncan that he will be proposing to the executive that they do not support the 20isPlenty campaign for there to be a default 20mph limit in all villages and towns. Instead he is proposing a county wide speed management strategy that will enable safety improvement schemes (which can include the20mph limit, but not in all situations) to be introduced where concerns are raised. From what I understand of the proposed policy, a 20mph limit trial would be introduced only in an area where there has already been a fatality or serious injury. I am disappointed with this outcome. I think what is proposed will create unnecessary cost, delay and continued risk of injury and I don’t think the decision was well considered. For this reason I have supported the call for this decision to be reviewed, which will take shortly. If the decision is upheld, I will establish what steps need to be taken for a community to apply for a review, should they want to, and let you know.

Yorbus: It has been announced that the YorBus pilot is being brought to an end. Whilst popular with those who used it, demonstrating that if public transport is fit for purpose more will use it (particularly the younger age group), the service was extremely expensive to run at an average cost of £14/passenger journey. 

I attended an ACC meeting recently to discuss the Local Transport Plan for the area and highlighted the need for public transport to meet the demand from the 16-18yr age group who need transport to education, and the need generally for the routes on offer to be relevant to the needs of local residents and to be joined up in terms of linking in with other bus and train services.

Rural Broadband

The broadband public meeting was held last week at Masham Town Hall and I will forwarded separately the presentation to the Clerk to circulate to those who would like to read it. 

There is a useful dedicated email to use if you do not yet have superfast broadband cable and want to establish if you are on the Phase 4 schedule for delivery. Please note though that this is not yet a definitive list, properties are currently falling in and out of the list due to issues that come the light during survey/installation. It’s far from a perfect situation. 

The outcome of the meeting was that if Phase 4 is not going to reach you (due to complete March 24), then there will be a wait of a year or two while we wait for Project Gigabit to be delivered. There are about 300 properties within Masham & Fountains that will find themselves in this position. Project Gigabit is a central government scheme. NYC have also applied for funding for the installation of masts to provide better mobile connection. I will keep you advised that f progress on this. 

There is always the option of contracting with Starlink for a satellite connection, but the connection fee is approx £500. I will be writing to Julian Smith MP to lobby for the vouchers scheme to be reintroduced for these properties to enable them to make a short term satellite connection while they wait for Project Gigabit to be rolled out. 

Council Meeting & Executive Decisions

At the meeting last week it was decided that a proposed ban on disposable vapes and a proposed ban on trail hunting on Council land should be considered at committee level. The motion was passed to call for Northern Powergrid to increase its capacity and connections to reduce carbon emissions (this will require intervention from the National Grid to improve capacity and may require Ofgen to enforce but the amendment to the motion providing for this was not agreed). The other motion that was passed was for the Council to express support for the bathing application for the Lido at Knaresborough on the River Nidd - a further amendment to support all other similar applications on North Yorkshire rivers was not supported. 

Destination Development Plan

I met Janet Deacon (Head of Tourism & Culture) recently at the Ripon BID office. I am lobbying for Ripon and surrounding attractions and hospitality businesses to be established as a destination distinct from Harrogate. I am now waiting for the draft DDP (due this month) to see if I have been successful. 

Highways

Please advise if there are any Highways that you need assistance with. Following the heavy rain it would be useful to know if the drain at the corner of The Green and High Street was flooding as this has been cleared recently. 

Planning : we have a meeting booked on 7th August to review planning enforcement issues. 

Play Area

My apologies for not responding to Cllr Heap's email about fundraising for this. I will make enquiries now at County Hall and once I am back at my desk next Monday I can respond properly. 

Locality Budget

I have been approached by the Chair of the Pre-School regarding a potential application for support from the Locality Budget, for building works. The reports I have heard about the Festival and the Run have all been very positive, I'm glad it went well. 

Henry Jenkins

I have met Mark Owen to discuss the application for COF funding and ways in which the Council can assist which I am pursuing further. 

Youth Councils

I waiting to hear from the Deputy Head at the Ripon Grammar School regarding progress on setting up local Youth Councils. His pupils were due to meet the Youth Engagement Officer who will be providing support with this. There is a NY Youth Council Annual Conference being held on 11th August should anyone be interested in helping get these off the ground, I will be attending. 

NHS Dentists

It was raised with Julian Smith MP at last month’s ACC that with the closure of the Finkle Street BUPA practise, residents in the local area are finding it increasingly difficult to find NHS dental care. The response advised of various measuresthat have been taken, and some have since been proposed, but none offering any short term solutions. Please keep me posted if you hear of residents in your Parish who are suffering due to the lack of NHS dental care.