Column: An enormously complex project - Karen Weaver, Harrogate and District Community Action

​The seven district councils that cover North Yorkshire will merge with the county council to form a huge new local authority, covering over 3000 square miles with an overall spend of about £1.4bn.

This is an enormously complex project and colleagues across all the councils are working extremely hard to ensure a smooth transition on April 1. Many teams will remain intact, and lots of services will continue to be delivered on the same basis.

However, over the longer term there will be changes that affect everyone, including charities and community groups. Fewer councillors will be grappling with ongoing financial pressures and unprecedented demand for services. The biggest savings will arise from fewer senior management posts with wider patches to cover. Whilst some might say that’s no bad thing, there’s the risk of losing strong local working relationships, history and knowledge, often built up over many years.

There is a strong commitment from those leading this change to keep "communities at the heart of our services, with locally based staff, more local access points, and a bigger say in how local services are delivered in your community” (NYCC website). In particular “Greater powers and funding will be passed to parish and town councils, for those that welcome them, and the new council will support them to take control of local services and facilities”. This is an aspect touched on by retiring Harrogate BC leader Coun Cooper in his interesting article in last week’s paper.

During my career I’ve often found confusion about the role of parish/town councils, which are the lowest tier of local government (and not linked to churches!).

They can provide a limited range of services, raising funds to do so via an addition to Council Tax known as a parish precept. However, this isn’t an option for Harrogate as together with Scarborough it is not “parished” at the moment.

Consultation is already underway on whether this should change in the new structure. If agreed, this would create one of the largest town councils in the country, but what it could achieve and be responsible for isn’t clear yet. It would certainly be dependent on that all important parish precept. The ability to raise and spend cash locally sounds attractive but there are also risks.

Could it be better for the new super council to remain responsible for all facilities and services in the two largest towns in the local authority? Would this make it easier or harder to sustain them in the longer term?

Coun Cooper wisely advised that lots more information is needed before an informed decision can be made.

Voluntary and community groups and the people they support will be an important part of this dialogue going forwards and it is vital they have their say as more detail emerges.