Belts to be tightened in county’s rural heartland

Richmondshire Council has lined up big cuts, with tourist information centres set to close and new parking charges introduced in many areas.

The council is facing a relatively hefty funding cut of around £1.6m to its £7.2m budget, and despite a programme to share services with neighbouring Hambleton Council, facilities are under threat.

The council’s Conservative leadership has said every tourist information centre and every children’s play area will close unless other bodies will take them on.

Hambleton, too, is closing one tourist information centre, in Thirsk, although this will move into the town’s converted public toilet and be staffed by volunteers.

Hambleton was revealed in the Yorkshire Post last year to have one of the largest reserves pots in the whole region, relative to the size of the council, and it will supplement its budget this year with almost £800,000 from the bank to help cope with a £1.7m cut.

Hambleton is also considering cutting its number of councillors to make further savings.

Over at Ryedale, the council proudly claims that the only service cut residents will notice this year is that the free council newspaper will no longer be distributed to their homes, saving £12,000.

The authority conducted a root and branch review of its internal operations last year to find the vast majority of the £1.1m savings it has been asked to find this year without any major front-line cuts.

However, tougher times are ahead – the authority will have to cut a further £500,000 from its budget next year in a second round of savings.

In Craven, yet another TIC will close, in Skipton, and move to a tourism “point” in Skipton Town Hall. But the big news is the council’s decision to hand the town hall over to a charitable trust when it moves into new offices later this year, while selling off Settle Town Hall altogether.

There will also be increased parking charges, with pay-and-display introduced in every council car park, while opening hours will be cut at customer service centres and the swimming baths.

In Craven, too, the spectre of further cuts looms large, with street cleaning and museums services now both under review as the authority hunts for savings totalling £1.3m over two years.

Scarborough has managed to avoid major cuts to services beyond the removal of both its park rangers, to be replaced by a volunteer-led service.