North Yorkshire Council is set to receive a significant financial boost to develop tailored investment plans for towns and key service centres across the region.
The council has accepted an offer of up to £1.2 million from the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) for this initiative. The council plans to supplement this funding with an additional £110,000 of its own money, bringing the total budget for the development programme to £1.31 million.
The funding is intended to support the costs of developing investment plans. Executive Member for Business, Councillor Mark Crane, says the programme aims to work on investments across North Yorkshire, focusing on the 32 largest towns and parishes
"We've got the offer of 1.2 million from the mayoral combined authority to do some work on town investments across North Yorkshire. We've got the 32, largest towns. and Parishes included in this.
We are solving this up with 110,000 pounds of our own money. This is a piece of work that will be going on over the next year or two.
The idea is to make these places much more user friendly, to make them accessible, and to make sure that they have the best opportunity going forward for jobs and for investment."
The programme will develop tailored investment plans for 32 towns and key service centres, which together account for a significant portion of North Yorkshire's population.
While each town is unique, they face common challenges from various trends. The investment plans will act as tool kits for shaping their future economic and social regeneration. They will focus on holistic ways to improve each place. Key themes for these plans include enabling enterprise, creating sustainable settlements, protecting heritage while promoting growth, and building resilient communities that support well-being.
The programme is seen as crucial for attracting investment and fostering economic growth as part of the North Yorkshire Economic Growth Strategy.
However, there are concerns regarding the level of public engagement in the process. Councillor Stuart Parsons expressed his alarm at the demographic present at an initial meeting about how the money could be best used, noting he was the youngest person there despite his age.
"I was horrified to be the youngest person present at the first meeting because I'm old.
There has been a failure so far, to be able to engage the sort of parenthood generation, those that are going through schools and so on, they will have much stronger ideas on how the town should develop because they're living it."
Councillor Parsons highlighted a "failure so far to be able to engage the sort of parenthood generation" and younger individuals, such as those going through schools. He stated that these younger generations "will have much stronger ideas on how the town should develop because they're living it". Council documents acknowledge the risk of a lack of buy-in from local stakeholders, businesses, and residents and state that extensive engagement and consultation are included in the programme to mitigate this.
The acceptance of the grant funding has this week received approval from the North Yorkshire Council Executive.
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