A council accused of focusing its resources and efforts on improving a county town has moved to highlight a raft of investment plans it is lining up for its other market towns.
A meeting of Hambleton District Council’s cabinet saw it approve pressing ahead with proposals for £50,000 projects in the town centres of Bedale, Easingwold, Thirsk and Stokesley and Great Ayton.
The meeting heard the authority’s Market Towns Investment Plan does not include a project for Northallerton as the authority has recently pumped millions of pounds of the government’s Future High Streets Fund and from its coffers into improving the high street.
However, as the council has previously approved £50,000 for every market town to support its Vibrant Market Towns programme, senior councillors also gave consent for the authority’s deputy leader and deputy chief executive to decide how £50,000 should be spent on Northallerton.
The decisions come a week after a cross-party group of elected members condemned the authority’s decision to limit its funding for a Stokesley town centre scheme, having recently approved spending more than £700,000 on an unexpected increase in costs to the Northallerton High Street upgrade.
The meeting was told projects being developed by the authority would include
a Market Place upgrade in Bedale, changes to improve Easingwold Town Hall, the development of a heritage trail and riverside path works in Stokesley and Great Ayton and changes to Thirsk’s Market Place.
Some of the projects being undertaken will see the council seek to optimise the use of public spaces in town centres, following the recommendations of a consultants’ report it commissioned “to ensure our towns future prosperity”.
Thirsk councillor Dave Elders questioned why the authority was looking to pump a further £50,000 into Northallerton.
He said: “I thought what we were doing was arranging spending money in lieu of what we’ve spent in Northallerton. Northallerton now seems to be reappearing in this report.”
The meeting heard while Northallerton had been excluded from the consultants’ study as it had landed government funding, a decision to also invest £50,000 in Northallerton had been approved alongside the funding for other market towns.
The council’s deputy leader, Councillor Peter Wilkinson, told the meeting elected members had selected a project for each of the market towns except Northallerton.
He said the authority had lined up numerous schemes – ranging from creating Italian piazza-style town centres to improving internet speeds – which could be progressed in future by North Yorkshire’s forthcoming unitary authority when funding became available.
Coun Wilkinson said: “Really importantly, it will develop a capital project pipeline for each of Hambleton’s market towns which can be used by the new authority in having shovel-ready projects available to look for grant opportunities when they become available.
“This is investing in the future of our market towns. Hopefully we will be in a really strong position, as this council always has been, to look for external funding. One thing as a council we have been is we’ve punched above our weight in winning grants to invest in the district.”
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