The Great Yorkshire Show was a good day out with an importance - Carl Les

The Council plays its part in a localised way, hiring the use of one of the hospitality rooms for part of a morning to invite people and organisations we work with either frequently but also occasionally, to come together to hear from us what the Council is doing, and answer any questions they may have. Many like myself have been Members of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society for some time, or their organisations have stands at the Show, but for some it is a good opportunity to visit the Show and catch up with us over a cup of coffee.

‘Every day is a school day’ is a cliched mantra we should never forget. One lesson learnt for me is to ask where their PA systems come from, technology that works so well not only in the main ring, but also in the meeting rooms. We have a need to upgrade some of the older systems we inherited at unitarisation so that those with impaired hearing, especially visitors, or people watching remotely, are not disadvantaged.

It is impossible to include everybody we would like in a guest list that is limited to around 50 people, but in a rotating list of partnership working, we try to cover as wide a range of sectors and interests as possible. So we included our fellow authorities like the Moors and Dales National Parks, the Mayors of the newly created town councils of Harrogate and Scarborough, the local MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough, organisations like North Yorkshire Youth and NY Sport, representatives of the church, the voluntary sector, the care sector, the media, and business, both individually like our own IT company NyNet and in the hospitality sector the World of James Herriot, and collectively in Chambers of Trade.

A number of invitations sent were declined because of diary clashes, and it’s important to understand that this is not the only opportunity we have to talk, but it is a good opportunity to say thank you to the organisations that work with us for the benefit of North Yorkshire`s residents and visitors.

Opportunities to talk to the farming community are able to be taken at other times and in the days when I was present at the Show. It was good to see both the Defra Secretary of State and the Farming Minister making themselves available to be present on the Thursday, and to talk briefly with them, although clearly there was some tension, understandably, as to what role they would have, if any, following the Monday of this week.

Topics raised with us were as varied as the guests themselves. They ranged through issues that we can deal with like the encouragement of business development through an enabling planning process which I support; the continuing need for more affordable housing, to buy but especially to rent; so helping young people to stay in the county rather than having to leave home to find work and homes that they can afford; looking after an ageing population where within a short space of time half our population will be over pension age.

Some issues are less easy to deal with. There was a demand to give food security a higher priority, in particular limiting the spread of solar farms.

As long as government policy actively promotes such development alongside a ‘presumption to permit’ they will be difficult to resist, at the risk of a successful appeal and award of costs, costs that will have to be paid by the council taxpayer.

There was considerable concern, both in our meeting and continuously over the four days of the Show about the effects of dry weather on land, and a recognition that wildfires like the one on the Moors last year will reoccur. This is where there is no single easy answer, no one silver bullet. We play our part in the Local Resilience Forum, bringing together senior people from many organisations to focus on a range of crises, the actual occurrence, the relief efforts needed thereafter, and the future prevention. Fire & Rescue were the blue light service that led on dealing with the actual fire, along with a huge response from volunteers from land owners and land managers, supported by the local authorities, NYC and the National Park.

Now as I have written recently here the Forum is appealing to the government both for financial compensation for losses, and other investment so as to be better prepared for the future. A true partnership effort.

Coun Carl Les is the Leader of North Yorkshire Council.