Posted by: clairekelley | November 30, 2009

Skateparks

This weekend Phil Willis MP and I went down to Bradford to meet with the Council’s Parks Manager, Ian Day, and visit two of their skate parks.
Both the skateparks were designed by local skaters working with a specialist company and look very different.

The first, in Bingley, is in Myrtle Park, in the centre of the town.   It is on a flat part of the park, next to a children’s play area and covers a space a bit bigger than a tennis court.    I was surprised that most of the surfaces are very angular and designed for grinding rather than the half pipes I had expected.

The park has been in place now for some time and has proved to be extremely popular although early morning on a wet Saturday at the end of November was of course quiet.

Bingley

The second park we visited was in Keighley and is Bradford’s most recent skate park.   Again designed by local skaters, it looks very different from the Myrtle Park one.

It is at the end of a school field, on quite steeply sloping ground and is predominently comprised of slopes and curves.

Keighley

The park is quite close to some housing and although the residents were anxious about disturbance from the park, there have been few complaints and some have commented that they enjoy the entertainment from the skill of the skaters.

There are more pictures of the skate parks on the Skate Park for Harrogate Facebook Group page.

Ian told us how popular the parks are.   Wouldn’t it be great to have something like this in Harrogate?

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Posted by: clairekelley | November 25, 2009

Friends of the Valley Gardens

Yesterday evening saw the second meeting of the Friends of the Valley Gardens – a group being set up by the Council to support and promote this wonderful park in Harrogate.

The Valley Gardens won an RHS award this year and was described in the citation as “a park for all people” so a formal group of local supporters is an excellent development and I very much hope that it will attract a truly representative selection of the many people who enjoy the Valley Gardens.

The Council’s Head of Parks, Pat Kilburn, tabled a draft constitution and those present at the meeting discussed the election of a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.   As most people there knew few others, it was agreed to bring nominations to the next meeting – Thursday 21 January 2010.   It was felt inappropriate for officers or members of the Council to take these positions but local person interested can put themselves forward by contacting Kate Dawson, the Parks Development Officer at the Council.     She is also the person to contact if you are interested in joining the group.

Kate’s contact details are:   kate.dawson@harrogate.gov.uk, telephone 01423 841097

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Posted by: clairekelley | November 17, 2009

Time for a skate park

Years have now passed since young people in Harrogate were promised a skate park.   People who were at school when the promise was made have now not just gone to university but have completed their studies.

We have had investigations and consultations and discussions.    Temporary skate parks in the Valley Gardens during the summer have been well used and have given pleasure to skaters, bikers and spectators.   The argument that the Valley Gardens was not the right location has surely been shown to be ill founded.

Hundreds of young people have joined our Facebook campaign.   They wonder why the Council does not support their sport.

The time has surely come to provide a park in Harrogate.

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Posted by: clairekelley | November 4, 2009

HIPS assessors misled

I’ve been contacted recently by a number of local people who are qualified as Domestic Energy Assessors – having trained to carry out the assessments required by Home Information Packs, introduced by the government in 2007.

They are feeling very sore at the way they have been treated,  and with good reason.    They embarked on the training – which cost about £9000 – with an expectation that each assessment would produce a fee of around £80.   In practice the fee has turned out to be closer to £25.

Home Condition reports were to be included as a compulsory part of the packs, but have remained optional – another reason that assessors have not been able to earn the amount that they anticipated.

Far more assessors have been trained than was originally envisaged and that, combined with the downturn in the property market, has meant that there is not enough work.

As a result they simply cannot earn a living nor can many of them repay the costs of their training.

And to add insult to injury – if the Conservatives are elected to government they have pledged to abolish HIPs.   This would leave the thousands of assessors without any work at all.

HIPs are in essence a good idea – it makes sense to have a single pack of information about a property available to potential purchasers rather than carrying out multiple assessments.   And energy assessments are a particularly good idea.   But the way the government introduced the scheme has been a complete shambles – an object lesson in how to mess up a good thing.

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Posted by: clairekelley | November 3, 2009

Harrogate secondary school admissions latest

A report to the NYCC Executive on 10 November will recommend a change to the admissions arrangements for the three Harrogate Secondary Schools.

The recommendation rejects the option of dividing the area into three catchments, each for a single school, which has the merit of being the simplest and clearest system.   Instead the Director is suggesting that there should be two zones – probably corresponding to the current town and rural zones and that there should be a percentage quota within each zone.

However, Miss Welbourn has concluded that to split the intake of Harrogate Grammar School in the same proportion as that of the intake overall (which varies between 85:15 and 88:12) would be unfair to rural families.    She states “In effect the impact of a strict pro-rata allocation would be to swing the pendulum too far in favour of the town area”.

The report does not really spell out why this is the case except to note that 85:15 would produce a significant reduction in the number of places available for rural children at Harrogate Grammar School.   It would “significantly affect the extent to which the authority would be able to meet this group of parents’ preferences”.

Instead of a pro-rata split therefore she recommends a weighted one of 79:21.   It is not clear why 79:21 is the chosen split although there seems to be some attempt to justify it on the grounds of the percentage of first preferences that have been accommodated in the past.   There is a very obvious flaw in this reasoning – parents in large areas of Harrogate simply do not include Harrogate Grammar School in their preferences because they know they have no chance of being offered a place under current arrangements.

I have read the report only once but it seems to me that a weighted percentage is a not a robust approach.   My expectation is that it will be challenged.     Time will tell.

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Posted by: clairekelley | October 12, 2009

Economies of scale? Support local business

Back in February I was contacted by a local businessman who told me that the County Council had changed its contracting practice.   Contracts were being bundled together to form very large contracts and small businesses simply could not tender for them.    As a result his company which for years had carried out work on local schools and other council buildings would lose a significant amount of work.

When I looked into it I found that many small and medium businesses were facing similar problems as a result of the Council’s interpretation of procurement guidance.

Together with County Councillor Les Parkes, I launched a campaign and we tackled NYCC on this issue.   The Council’s Executive Member replied that the arrangements were perfectly sound and there was nothing to prevent small businesses from tendering as in the past.    Our information suggested this was not the case.

So I was delighted to see a report that the same Executive Member is to make to this Wednesday’s County Council meeting.   In it he reports that the County Executive has asked the Corporate Procurement Group to review the arrangements under which companies tender for business.   He recognises that there is a balance to be struck between economies of scale  and encouragement for local business.    He concedes that in some circumstance local companies can provide the best value for money.

I have long been a sceptic about “economies of scale” .    Of course they generally apply when you are sourcing goods – we all know that buying in bulk enables purchasers to negotiate discounts.   But where you are buying services that are provided by human beings, these economies are more questionable.

I once worked in a very small college of London University.   Everyone knew everyone else, staff and students and the college was exceptionally efficient.   Along came the rationalisation of the university.    The college was merged with another small college and a large one.    It had to operate on many sites.   Matters  which previously had been resolved in a few minutes by a quick word with the relevant person became time consuming and difficult because first we had to identify who was responsible, then send memos and organise meetings.    The level of bureaucracy within the organisation spiralled and although some overheads were eventually reduced I always thought that any savings there were far outweighed by the huge administrative burden that was unavoidable in a large college.

So I take little persuading about the value for money that can be found in using local contractors where possible.    And I think it is particularly important for local authorities to do this.    If they can’t support businesses run by the people who they serve, then who can?

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Posted by: clairekelley | October 1, 2009

Killinghall traffic

On Friday 2 October a county council scrutiny committee will meet to reconsider the decision to make permanent the ban on heavy traffic using the B6161 through Killinghall.   This highly controversial decision has been ‘called in’ by Harrogate Lib Dems after a vote along party lines at the NYCC Area Committee.

The Vice Chairman of the Area Committee had to use his casting vote to force the decision through when the local Conservative member for the area which suffers most from the new arrangements abstained.   Residents from the New Park area of Harrogate and those living on the Ripon Road in Killinghall were astonished to see the Conservatives voting against the advice of their own Highway Officers and against the view that had been expressed by the police.   Even the Executive member for Transport voted against the advice of the Council’s professional advisers.

If the decision is upheld, all vehicles over 18 tonnes will have to travel along the A61 and A59 via the New Park roundabout.   This route has a much worse accident record than the B6161 and is more than twice as long.   A quick calculation based on the figures provided by the county’s highways experts shows that in a single year the additional miles travelled as a result of the Tory decision would take a lorry round the world more than ten times.

So, although I understand the frustrations of Killinghall residents who have put up with far too many lorries thundering through their village and past their school for far too long, I just can’t see the logic of this decision.   It replaces a bad situation with one which is even worse.

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Posted by: clairekelley | September 15, 2009

Happy birthday Harrogate CAB

Many happy returns to Harrogate Citizens’ Advice Bureau which is 70 years old today.  It was one of the first such organisations in the country and over the years has given sound advice to many thousands of local people at no charge.

The work they do is really vital to thousands of people and many of us have great reason to be grateful to the volunteers and the paid staff who run the organisation.

As well as giving advice to individuals they play an extremely valuable role in campaigning and lobbying government – local and national – on a wide variety of issues.   At the moment they have a terrific campaign – Hung Up – about 08 telephone numbers, which cause unneccessary expense to many people who use only mobile phones or who have packages on their home phones.    In some cases callers pay up to 40p a minute on these numbers and CAB has evidence to show that people frequently put off phoning 08 numbers because of the cost.   This can result in the loss of benefits or a failure to report overpayments.

An announcement by the Health Secretary yesterday proposed the replacement of all 08 numbers in the health service.   We also need our local authorities to change their use of them – Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council and North Yorkshire Police all have 0845 numbers, in the case of the latter two, as their main numbers.    Many local authorities have already transferred but up to now ours have resisted although they have been asked to make changes.   Could it be because they get a share of the profits from these numbers?

03 numbers – which have been available for some time now – offer them an opportunity to keep the services that they have on 08 numbers but mean that callers will pay no more than a call to an ordinary landline.    Alternatively they could simply publish a number with a geographic code so that it is charged at the normal rate for landlines and included in the ‘free minutes’ on many phone contracts.

CAB 081013 004

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Posted by: clairekelley | September 11, 2009

Harrogate secondary school admissions update

North Yorkshire County Council has now published its consultation on Harrogate secondary school admissions.    The document itself is proving somewhat controversial and there is a feeling that it is perhaps not quite as objective as it should be.   The Council also put out an incredibly self congratulatory press release which in an exemplary piece of spin completely glosses over the fact that three separate Adjudicators found the admissions procedures to be unfair.

However, this is a very welcome opportunity for local people to express their views on whether a new system should be introduced and if so, what form it should take.   This first stage of the consultation runs until 2 November and includes a series of meetings in local schools.   I can’t find details of these on the website yet, but no doubt the Council will make times and venues known soon.

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Posted by: clairekelley | September 11, 2009

Traffic arrangements – Killinghall & New Park

Last year the County Council’s Area Committee decided, against the advice of Highways Officers and the Police, to introduce a trial ban on heavy vehicles on the B6161 through Killinghall.   This was a route which carried far too many heavy lorries and local residents and the primary school had good reason to be unhappy with the arrangements.

The problem was that the alternative route is also bad.   The route is longer, the number of people inconvenienced greater and the congestion caused worse.    A series of roadworks on Skipton Road added to the problems.   The bridge over Oak Beck had to be reinforced leading to questions from residents about whether the road is sufficiently strong to take the impact of so many heavy trucks.

The trial period comes to an end on 30 December and the committee now has to decide whether to revert to the old arrangements, make permanent the ban on the B6161, or introduce another scheme altogether.

The Council’s Highways Officers recommendation is that the experiment has been unsuccessful and the previous arrangements should be reinstated.   What will the Committee decide?    The report is available on the County Council’s website.

The decision will be made at a meeting which takes place at 9.30 am on Thursday 17 September at the Pavillions.   The item is one of the first on the agenda.   Members of the public can apply to speak by contacting the Committee Clerk at the County Council.   Three days notice is required.

Traffic on A59 Skipton Road at New Park

Traffic on A59 Skipton Road at New Park

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