Owen, David

From: Cllr.John Blackie Sent: 13 January 2018 12:16 To: reviews Cc:

Subject: My comments on the draft recommendations of the LGBCE Review of DC

To: The Local Government Boundary Commission for (LGBCE)

Reference : The LGBCE Review of Richmondshire District Council (RDC) – Consultation of its draft recommendations

Deadline for comments : Monday 15th January 2018

Submitted to: [email protected] CC: [email protected] CC: [email protected]

Please could you acknowledge by e‐mail safe receipt of this e‐mail ‐ thank you.

MY COMMENTS ON THE LGBCE DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ITS REVIEW OF RICHMONDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL

I write in in my following roles to offer my comments on the LGBCE Draft recommendations of its review of Richmondshire District Council as:

‐ Richmondshire District Councillor for & High Abbotside (since May 1995) ‐ County Councillor for the Upper Dales (since May 1997) ‐ As a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, including its Planning Committee (since May 1997) ‐ Chairman of Hawes & High Abbotside Parish Council (Member since 1995, Chairman since 2001)

‐ Local resident living in Hawes and High Abbotside (since 1985) ‐ Local Businessman (since 1985)

‐ Volunteer Executive Chairman of The Upper Dales Community Partnership A not‐for‐profit community company and social enterprise established in 1997

I was delegated by Hawes & High Abbotside Parish Council to offer its comments on the draft recommendations of the Review which have been submitted and received by the LGBCE, but it is important to state that I fully concur with its comments as its Chairman.

Here, in the various roles are my comments:

1 1) I very strongly support the proposal to combine within a new ward the existing RDC ward comprising the Parishes of Hawes & High Abbotside along with the Parishes of Muker and Melbecks, to address the reduction of the membership of RDC from 34 to 24 members as proposed in the Review. I therefore strongly agree with the Review’s draft recommendation in this regard.

2) However I challenge the name the LGBCE is proposing for the new ward (please see points 17‐28 below) and I would wish it to be named “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale”, rather than simply “Hawes & High Abbotside” for the reasons given.

3) I am aware and was present at its meeting when Muker Parish Council strongly supported the proposed new ward of Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale as it was submitted to the Review during its consultation on new boundaries between June and September 2017. This strong support included its solid approval of the name of the ward being “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale”.

4) I consider the draft recommendations for the new ward proposed will provide for electoral equality and effective and convenient local government. Most important I consider the draft recommendations reflects the very strong evidence of community interests, identities and community links already existing within the proposed new ward, as submitted to the Review during its consultation on new boundaries between June and September 2017.

5) I show the comments made in the LGBCE document on its draft recommendations issued in October, on Page 20, here: “Councillor Blackie’s scheme attracted considerable support from Parish Councils and local residents, with many respondents supporting or adding to the community identity evidence given by Councillor Blackie. We are persuaded by the evidence of community identity received to recommend Councillor Blackie’s proposal, subject to one modification ‐ we propose to include the Parish of Melmerby in the Bolton Castle ward.”

6) I acknowledge with thanks both the support given by the LGBCE to my submission to its Review in September, which addressed re‐warding (at RDC level) the County Council division of the Upper Dales, and your recognition of the considerable support from Parish Councils and local residents that my submission received, along with the evidence supporting or adding to the evidence it provided of community identity, interests and community links that underpinned my submission.

7) Listening to the communities on matters as important as revising the structure of their democratic representation at a key local authority, unchanged since 1999, was a promise the LGBCE offered throughout its review of RDC, and I consider (after having some doubt at one stage) it has fully lived up to its promise in regard to both Hawes and High Abbotside, and the communities within the Upper Dales in general. Thank you, LGBCE.

8) Since making my submission I can offer two further examples of community interests that have occurred, demonstrating how important it is for the LGBCE to take into account these interests when making proposals to re‐draw the RDC electoral boundaries within the Upper Dales.

9) The local services offered by the Upper Dales Community Partnership (UDCP) Ltd, a not‐for‐profit community company and social enterprise formed in 1997, featured strongly in my submission to the LGBC Review. In October 2017 it registered as a legal entity The Upper Dales Community Land Trust, to develop community‐ led affordable holding to rent in the Upper Dales. Currently the UD CLT is working up a scheme of 4 affordable houses in Langthwaite, Arkengarthdale and 6 houses in Hawes, and it has been approached by two other communities in the Upper Dales to bring forward schemes in their villages.

10) I cannot stress in a Yorkshire Dales National Park suffering from the lack of affordable housing to rent opportunities, how important these schemes are, and how whether they are successful or not (it will not be for the lack of trying if they fail, be assured) it underlines the links between communities within the Upper Dales that are maintained within the draft recommendations of the LGBCE Review.

2 11) The UDCP has also, in November, become the first community in England to operate a filling station rather than see it closed, avoiding it falling prey to developers. The filling station, the Dale Head Community Garage in Hawes, retails one million litres of fuel annually, and the availability of this amount of fuel locally in the Upper Dales on a filling station open 7 days a week is a key component in supporting a vibrant local economy in the Upper Dales.

12) The Dale Head Community Garage serves most of Upper and Upper Swaledale and draws upon a very deep customer base of local residents, farmers, and local businesses from these communities, many of whom still maintain accounts at the Garage. In particular it serves Hawes and High Abbotside Parishes, and for Muker Parish it is closer than the fuel garage in Reeth, which has more restricted opening days and hours. Again this adds to the community links submitted to the LGBC Review, and supports its draft recommendations for the proposed ward of Hawes & High Abbotside and the Upper Dales in general.

13) Within the next 2 years it is the intention of the UDCP to stage a community purchase via a share offer of the site of the Garage, so the Upper Dales community will have ownership in perpetuity of an asset of great value to its social and economic well‐being. In staging a community buy‐out it will emulate the community purchases of The George and Dragon In Hudswell and The Foresters Arms in Carlton. It is no coincidence that the community spirit that underpinned these two pioneering public house buy‐outs come from communities within the Upper Dales.

14) I therefore consider the draft recommendations for all the communities within the Upper Dales County Council division, along with a small part of the Middle Dales division, will provide for electoral equality and effective and convenient local government. I consider the draft recommendations reflects the very strong evidence of community interests, identities and community links within the existing Upper Dales division submitted to the Review during its consultation on new boundaries between June and September 2017, and that these will continue to be retained and promoted in the proposed new wards.

15) I would add that the inclusion of the Parish of Melmerby within the proposed Bolton Castle Ward strengthens the community identities and links within the ward, and I strongly support its inclusion on this basis.

16) I therefore agree very strongly with the draft recommendations of the LGBCE Boundary Review insofar as it has direct relevance to Hawes and High Abbotside, and to all the communities within the existing Upper Dales County Council division.

17) However I must challenge the name of the new ward as proposed by the LGBCE in its draft recommendations as “Hawes & High Abbotside”. I would strongly argue as follows for it to be named “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale”, as per my submission to the Review in September.

18) The proposed new ward will join together two hugely self‐reliant and fiercely independent Upper Dales communities intensely proud of their own cultural heritage. This pride is one of the very many deep strengths of both the two communities involved – those in Upper Wensleydale (Hawes and High Abbotside Parishes) and those in Upper Swaledale (Muker and Melbecks Parishes).

19) In simply naming the new ward “Hawes & High Abbotside” it undermines the self‐esteem, credibility and integrity of the local residents and local businesses in the 3 distinct communities that will comprise the proposed new ward – Hawes, High Abbotside and Upper Swaledale. I am sure the LGBCE proposed name has been most likely prompted by a understandable lack of knowledge of the three deeply rural Upper Dales communities involved, but if it is adopted it will sell Upper Swaledale short of the mark, and detract from the warm welcome all the rest of the LGBCE draft recommendations have received from the communities within the new proposed ward and the Upper Dales in general since they were published in October.

20) All the individual communities joined together in the redrawn boundaries of the new ward must feel part of the new arrangements, and whilst it is strongly agreed the proposals do take very strong account of issues of community interest, identity and links, it is important that these attributes should also be reflected in the name of the new ward.

3 21) Hawes, High Abbotside and Upper Swaledale by area will be one of the very largest District / Borough Council wards in all England, this due to the deeply rural nature of the Upper Dales. It is essential when addressing the inevitable outcome of creating electoral equality in such a deeply rural ward that the geography of what is being proposed in the new and extended wards is not overlooked by the names given to them.

22) High Abbotside is a community with its own strong cultural heritage but gave up its own Parish Council to join with Hawes some 40 or more years ago. In doing so however it retained the name of the Parish in the name of the existing ward. It too would be extremely unwilling to lose its identity in the renaming of the new ward.

23) The Parishes of Muker and Melbecks are very often referred to informally by local residents living within them as Upper Swaledale in the same way as Hawes and High Abbotside is referred to as Upper Wensleydale. The communities comprising the new ward can therefore be immediately identified if the name of the new ward is “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale”.

24) What in essence has been assembled in the new proposed ward is therefore 3 distinct communities, the town of Hawes (also known informally as the capital of Upper Wensleydale), the community of High Abbotside, which is located along the opposite bank of the to Hawes, and the communities of Upper Swaledale. I argue strongly that each of these 3 communities should feature in the name of the new proposed ward.

25) I note that because of the nature and intentions of the LGBCE Review, several adjoining communities have been joined together in new wards throughout all of the district of Richmondshire. It seems the LGBCE have recognised this in proposing names such as “Catterick & Brompton‐on‐Swale” and “Swaledale & Arkengarthdale”.

26) I therefore question why the LGBCE should draw the line of including a name that gives similar self‐esteem and credence to all the 3 distinct communities in naming the proposed new ward “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale”. It appears to be an issue of fairness to take the same approach to all the names of the new RDC wards proposed in the LGBCE Review.

27) I also question why there should be a limit on the number of letters in a ward name as “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale” has only 6 more letters than the hyphenated ward name of the new ward of “Catterick & Brompton‐on‐Swale” proposed in the Review. It would ask the LGBCE to apply an approach of equality in what is an important part of its Review.

28) I strongly urge the LGBCE to reconsider the name of the new ward it is proposing in its draft recommendations and agree to it being named “Hawes, High Abbotside & Upper Swaledale”.

John Blackie

My Volunteer Roles

 Executive Chairman – The Upper Dales Community Partnership Ltd A not‐for‐profit community Company and Social Enterprise established in 1997

 Managing Director – The Little White Bus Community Transport Service  Managing Director – Dale Head Community Garage, Hawes

 Chairman – The Upper Dales Community Land Trust Ltd

 Sub‐Postmaster for Hawes

4 My Elected roles

INDEPENDENT

 North Yorkshire County Councillor ‐ The Upper Dales [since May 1997]  Richmondshire District Councillor ‐ Hawes & High Abbotside [since May 1995]  Chairman ‐ Hawes & High Abbotside Parish Council [Member since 1995 / Chairman since 2001]

 Member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority [since May 1997]

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