Harrogate Chamber Hustings : Your Questions Answered
Harrogate Town Council : Yes or No?
In preparation for the General Election to be held in less than 2 weeks, we hosted a Hustings of our own with 6 of the 7 candidates standing in the Harrogate & District constituency in attendance. This week we will reflect on the questions asked and the answers given.
The first question of the evening came from the Chamber’s CEO and owner of Martin Mann IT, Martin Mann:
Do you support the creation of a Harrogate Town Council, and if so, would you work with the county to ensure this happened? Is there a matter of urgency before Harrogate loses its premium brand values?
Tom Gordon (Lib Dem):
In short, yes, I would support a Harrogate Town Council. It is something I’ve been banging the drum for, and pushing North Yorkshire Council to try and make sure it happens this year rather than next. The delay has cost Harrogate. We’ve got people as far away as Scarborough making decisions about our lives and our businesses here. That’s a travesty. We would have liked to have kept the previous two-tier system, but we’re now going to have to make the best of a bad situation.
Paul Haslam (Independent):
I very much support the town council. I think we just need to ask a slightly deeper question here. Let’s say we have a local MP, the local council, a local parish council etc. - we need to understand how that group of people all work together, now we’ve got the combined authority and mayor. The town council will really anchor some of the critical local issues and so I think that’s very important.
Andrew Jones (Conservative):
Yes, I do support a town council and the sooner we can get it going the better. But there’s a bit of work that needs to be done first, and that is to be clear what it’s for, and how it’s not going to be covering some of the existing decision-making responsibilities already existing at the area committee level. We don’t want duplication; we need clarity.
Shan Oakes (Green):
Yes, I’m up for places having their own councils. I’m on Knaresborough Town Council and Ripon Parish Council myself, and it’s important that decisions are made locally for local people, consulting local people. We're waiting with bated breath for the double devolution from North Yorkshire Council to provide the money and the scope for local councils. Knaresborough House is an example of a place which has been horribly neglected and needs to be looked after by local people.
John Swales (Reform):
We were told we were going to save all this money by abolishing local councils in North Yorkshire, and now, following devolution we want a new local council! So, I think it’s like a lot of things in politics, it just goes around in a complete circle. So, to answer your question, yes, we should have a Harrogate Town Council. Democracy needs to be local. We need to have local people involved because they know what’s going on. When? As soon as possible.
Conrad Whitcroft (Labour):
Yes, absolutely. I’m a local counsellor and I know that there is no more important part of democracy than local democracy, knowing who your local counsellor is and how they can help you out. You need an MP who’s going to be able to work with our new mayor and work across the region because as important local decision-making is, it means nothing unless you've got the national and regional infrastructure there to support it.
We would like to thank all candidates for participating in a lively and engaging discussion, and all those who asked such pertinent questions.
Thanks also to John Plummer for facilitating the meeting and Pavilions of Harrogate for hosting.
Written by Zach Greaves - Chamber Press Secretary
