No Community Network Pilots for North Yorkshire Coast

Thursday, 1 June 2023 06:00

By Matthew Pells

The Yorkshire Coast wont be a part of a pilot programme to introduce community networks.

North Yorkshire Council is creating the structures following the abolition of the district and borough councils to ensure local issues are dealt with.

The Community Networks would include North Yorkshire Council members and receive support from senior council officers, but they would be independent of the authority and would be responsible for developing forward action plans centred on a specific area’s priorities.

About 30 partnerships are set to be introduced and centred around market towns and their surrounding areas.

Five pilot areas are being used for the project, but none of them are on the coast.

The areas chosen for the pilot are Easingwold, Leyburn and Middleham, Ripon, Sherburn-in-Elmet and Thornton-le-Dale and the surrounding rural area

The Council's head of stronger communities - Marie Ann Jackson - says more areas will be able to join the scheme in the future.

The community networks are due to operate independently and would have the opportunity to elect their own chair. While they would not have devolved budgets, the networks would be supported to explore funding opportunities through sources such as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

It is hoped that they will build on existing relationships and partnerships between the public, private and community and voluntary sectors, including the close working arrangements that were developed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Council’s executive member for stronger communities, Councillor David Chance, says other areas will be able to join the scheme after the pilot stage.

North Yorkshire Council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said:

“While North Yorkshire Council is now the third largest council in the country and covers the largest geographical area of any local authority nationally, we are committed to being the most local, too.

“The networks will mobilise communities, unleashing energy and ambition and giving people a stronger voice to tackle those issues that mean the most to them.”