Chief Executives’ Group – North Yorkshire and York
17 June 2022 via Teams
Minutes and action points
| Present: | |
|---|---|
| Janet Waggott | Selby District Council |
| David Butterworth | Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority |
| Jane Colthup | Community First Yorkshire |
| Tony Clark | Richmondshire District Council |
| Paul Ellis | Craven District Council (on behalf of Paul Shevlin) |
| Wallace Sampson | Harrogate Borough Council |
| Mabs Hussain | North Yorkshire Police (on behalf of Lisa Winward) |
| Tom Hind | North York Moors National Park Authority |
| Neil Irving | North Yorkshire County Council (on behalf of Richard Flinton) |
| Phillip Spurr | Ryedale District Council (on behalf of Stacey Burlet) |
| Nick Edwards | Scarborough Borough Council (on behalf of Mike Greene) |
| Simon Dennis | Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner |
| Justin Ives | Hambleton District Council |
| James Manning | North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service |
| In attendance: | |
| Pete Massey | Arts Council England |
| Nina Baptiste | Arts Council England |
| James Farrar | York and North Yorkshire LEP |
| Karl Battersby | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Patrick Duffy | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Deborah Hugill | North Yorkshire County Council (secretariat) |
| Apologies: | |
| Richard Flinton | North Yorkshire County Council |
| Lisa Winward | North Yorkshire Police |
| Stacey Burlet | Ryedale District Council |
| Jonathan Foster | North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service |
| Mike Greene | Scarborough Borough Council |
| Ian Floyd | City of York Council |
| Amanda Bloor | North Yorkshire CCG |
| Paul Shevlin | Craven District Council |
1. Minutes of last meeting - 11 February 2022 - and matters arising
The minutes were agreed as a true record and there were no matters arising which were not covered on the agenda. Simon Dennis subsequently requested a small change to wording in item 7 covering his comments in relation to the Mayoral Combined Authority and discussions around Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner transfer. The wording will be changed to:
Simon Dennis indicated that the view of the PFCC (and his own as CE) was that a PFCC Mayoral Combined Authority appeared to be the right model for NY&Y, under the planned local devolution arrangements - and is consistent with the LU White Paper - and that OPFCC is keen and stands ready to be involved in the discussions around PFCC transfer, both with colleagues locally and with government.
ACTION: DH
2. Arts Council presentation
Pete Massey and Nina Baptiste from Arts Council England were welcomed to the meeting and gave a presentation about the work of the organisation, in particular in York and North Yorkshire.
The Arts Council is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Its headquarters is in Manchester, over 70% of its staff are based outside of London and more of them work in the North than anywhere else in England. From 2011 their responsibilities now include museums and libraries. They also work with DfE to deliver a network of Music Education Hubs.
In 2020 they published their 10 year strategy, Let’s Create. Its vision being: ‘By 2030, we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.’ A number of outcomes flow from this and there is a delivery plan (2021-24) based on five themes, designed to focus on areas in most need of attention and investment.
There are 54 Priority Places for the Arts Council across England. In determining the choice of these, they considered both the needs of a place and the opportunity for cultural growth and development. Selby is one of the 54 areas and shared priorities are being developed.
Arts Council investment in York and North Yorkshire in the past five years was discussed. This was higher in 2021 due to the addition of the Government’s Cultural Covid Recovery Fund. Administering this gave the Arts Council the opportunity to build relationships with a number of organisations they had not previously worked with.
The future of culture in North Yorkshire and York was discussed in relation to local government reorganisation and devolution to a mayoral combined authority. It is important to recognise that good work is already going on and ensure this is built on. The role of the development of market towns to retain and attract younger people needs to be considered.
Pete and Nina were thanked for the presentation and a number of discussion points raised. The aim to better align cultural assets with the visitor economy was welcomed and it was agreed that an action for the local government reorganisation programme was to better link these two areas, as they currently sit under different workstreams.
ACTION: Workstream sponsors
The opportunities for working with the National Park Authorities were also raised and it was acknowledged that this was an area for development as there are natural synergies and the potential for new audiences.
3. Refugee update
Neil Irving presented a report explaining the background and updating on the refugee support schemes operating locally and the numbers of people involved. The support is based on a partnership response which is working well locally. The nationally managed schemes, such as Homes For Ukraine, are often more challenging as local authorities have little control of the process.
The future housing impacts and issues were discussed, as were possible future extensions to current schemes in the future.
Joint working within partnership structures is in place and partners are well sighted and keeping pace with developments in what is a dynamic and fast-moving environment.
4. Moving unitary transition forward
Janet Waggott gave an update for partners on the local government reorganisation programme. Following elections in May for the last year of the County Council and the first four years of the new unitary, the Executive is in place and task and finish groups are being set up. Their work will take place between July and November.
The post of Chief Executive for the new unitary has been advertised and this process should conclude by the end of July. The development of organisational structures will then begin.
There is a lot to do but councils are working well together and regular communication is being disseminated to partners and staff. Retention and recruitment issues are causing some difficulties, although this was anticipated, and the process needs to be positive, balanced and honest to ensure a good transition.
There were discussions about locality working plans, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, the importance of including National Park Authorities in planning discussions and the role of area constituency committees.
5. LEP update
James Farrar gave an update on the business of the local enterprise partnership, including the following:
- LEP review and integration within a future combined authority
- £1.5m for Skills Boot Camp to train 1070 people achieved
- Formally engaging with relevant Executive members in North Yorkshire and York on Routemap to carbon negative
- Supporting local government reorganisation programme
- Shared Prosperity Fund work. The aim is to formally sign off and submit bids in last week of July.
James was thanked for his update and the continued hard work and delivery of the LEP.
6. Devolution update
James Farrar provided an update on progress with devolution talks with Government. Negotiation is ongoing. One issue is that these negotiations are not being carried out at the point of spending review as would ideally be the case. However, agreement has been reached in a number of areas and progress is being made in others. Other areas including gainshare, transport, and net zero ambitions require more work.
It was discussed that the housing element should be considered in relation to the local government reorganisation workstream for housing, which Justin Ives agreed to pick up.
ACTION: JI
A meeting is due to be held shortly in relation to arts, culture, sport and heritage and progress is also being made around business support and governance.
It was acknowledged that there is a huge volume of work and that things are moving quickly. An announcement is expected from Government later in the summer ahead of a region wide consultation in the late autumn.
7. Report of the York, North Yorkshire, East Riding and Hull (YNYERH) Directors of Development Group
Karl Battersby provided an update on the work and progress of the Directors of Development Group (DoDs) between February and May. The main agenda items (apart from standing items) were:
- Local Nature Partnership Update – Report on progress and Directors of Development agreed to support the further extension of the shared LNP Development Officer post for a further two years.
- Devolution – update in relation to progress, governance and communications
- Local Authorities’ Climate Update – consultation on the Routemap to Carbon Negative with final sign-off of documents expected in July 2022. Presentation on Yorkshire Hemp growing as part of Grow Yorkshire.
- Cities and Local Growth Team – members of the Cities and Local Growth Unit attended to set the Levelling Up White Paper into context.
- Tees Valley Combined Authority Presentation – presentation on the TVCA which was extremely useful and good working relationships with TVCA will be important in future.
- Drax – presentation on Drax Bio Energy and Carbon Capture Project and the Humber, East Coast Zero Carbon Cluster.
- Levelling Up Bids – discussions about the bid process in general and the North Yorkshire Transport Bid in particular.
- Housing Strategy – York, North Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire Housing Partnership reviewed strategy which ran to 2021. Given local government reorganisation, a new full five year strategy will not be put in place at this point but new high level priorities following the impact of Covid will be assessed.
As part of their regular updates to the DoDs meeting, Heads of Planning discussed resourcing and staffing issues and Biodiversity Net Gain.
A special meeting was held in May to discuss the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The first partnership meeting has just been held and joint working between the LEP, County Council and District Councils is going well.
The DoDs group was acknowledged as a very useful and effective group and it is open to being tasked by the Chief Executives Group to look at particular subjects if required.
8. Representation on the North Yorkshire Health and Wellbeing Board
Patrick Duffy presented a short report requesting a nomination for a Chief Officer from the District/Borough Councils to represent their views and to report back to them on the issues considered at the Board. In view of local government reorganisation, the District/Borough Council representative will be appointed until 31st March 2023.
It was agreed that Janet Waggott will continue to be the representative on the Board. Tony Clark confirmed he was also happy to continue to deputise if Janet is unable to attend.
9. LGNYY meeting 1 July 2022
A report detailing current items for the Local Government North Yorkshire and York meeting in March was discussed.
The following agenda items were suggested:
- Destination Management Organisation arrangements following Welcome to Yorkshire entering administration
- Political representative on Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission
10. Any other business
The following items were suggested for future meetings of the Chief Executives’ Group:
- Partnership structures
- North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue risk and resource model
Wallace Sampson provided information about the LGA annual conference which is being held in Harrogate on 28-30 June. There has been good take up of places and the intention is to provide a strong Yorkshire and Humber presence within the programme. On Wednesday 29 June the LEP is taking part in the innovation zone events in relation to their circular economy work. There will also be a regional fringe event to showcase public and private sector low carbon and climate change work. This will be held at the Hotel St George in Harrogate on Thursday 30 June. It is not necessary to be a conference delegate to attend this session.
Date and time of next meeting
Friday 16 September 2022 10am - 12 noon via Teams.
