This update was emailed and asked to be read out at the July Parish Council meeting in Councillor Thompson’s absence.

A brief report for your 3 PCs follows below. (dated 1st July 2025)

1. We are hopeful that we will hear of the decision regarding the A66 upgrade in the next 2 months or so. We had hoped that the decision would have been announced by the chancellor in her recent financial statement. It has now been passed to the DfT so I presume this means that the minister will decide. I am not optimistic that we will win through, but we can only wait and see.

      2) I have been informed that an announcement is to be made in the next week regarding      the recommencement of work on the Designer Outlet with a view to opening in the spring of 2027. This will be coupled with various upgrades to the roundabout which I am most anxious to hear the details of. Anyone who uses the roundabout on Friday afternoon will more than understand why!

      We’ll see what the announcement is and I have to say I have heard all this before.

    3) Home to School Transport. I had a very productive meeting with the head of Richmond School and 3 governors 2 weeks ago. There were various concerns which I have and expressed. The most important one being the fact that the school is full which means students from my constituency may not be able to get a place at the school. This has happened already and the school went to great lengths to stress that this would be avoided at all costs.

If however it does happen then there is the right of appeal. The reason Richmond School is full appears to be the fact that it takes in many students from outside catchment like Northallerton, Leyburn and Catterick. Parents pay over £1100 per annum for transport.

An excellent school and that is reflected in the demand for places.

In respect of the new transport policy, I don’t like it any more than anyone else. I won’t trawl through past debates and arguments. Had the motion before full council on 19th May succeeded and we reverted to the catchment system, and which I voted against, then we would almost certainly have had to put forward cuts in frontline services. SEND or special educational needs could have been one. Is that what people want? Of course not. We all want more funding from central government. But it has been made absolutely clear that that won’t be forthcoming. Indeed, sadly the vibes are that even more cuts to funding for councils like North Yorkshire are forthcoming.

Please understand that without further funding, by year 28/29 it is very unlikely that anyone in North Yorkshire will get free school transport.

I am working on a new initiative brought forwards by Sharon Diamond, a resident of Eppleby, 

where with some tweaking of the timetable for Hodgsons, students from villages like Stapleton, Manfield, Eppleby, Aldbrough and Melsonby will be able to travel to Richmond School for £1 per journey which, with full attendance throughout the academic year would be about £390. No one likes to pay for something which they have been used to having free, but this is less than half of the cost of using the county system.

Finally on this subject, the savings in the section 115 officer’s (chief accountant) Medium Term Financial Strategy savings from the new policy are £2.56 million in the 3 years commencing Sept 25, but are now projected to be nearer £3 million. 

If you don’t believe or accept these figures so be it. But they are based on signed contracts at now fixed prices with transport providers. No matter where the taxi or bus comes from it is on a fixed price contract. 

4) The future of Richmond Swimmimg Pool is in doubt due to the vast expenditure required to bring it up to standard. This is to be subject to a public consultation which I encourage everyone to take part in.

Best wishes,

Angus Thompson.