New unitary expresses concern at procedure adopted by abolished predecessor authority over CIL grant payments

Community groups in the area of the former Ryedale District Council face uncertainty over whether they will receive donations from the council’s community infrastructure levy fund after Ryedale’s successor North Yorkshire County Council cast doubt on the procedure adopted for approval of the payments.

Ryedale was abolished along with other districts when North Yorkshire became a county unitary on 1 April and the latter must now reconsider the grants.

At the former council’s final meeting members voted by 18-1 to approve a series of payments recommend by its Grants Working Party to local organisations totalling some £2.88m.

The largest grant was £940,954 to Ryedale Special Families, followed by £498,626 to Malton Community Sports Centre.

At a North Yorkshire executive meeting on 9 May George Jabbour, a member of the ruling Conservative group, said he had been contacted about “the significant impact that [the grant scheme] has on several organisations within Ryedale”.

He said the government had required councils undergoing reorganisation to obtain the consent of a specified authority before certain types of transactions - known as Section 24 consents - which covered Ryedale’s grants.

Cllr Jabbour said Ryedale had made the awards “without receiving Section 24 consent from the appropriate local authority”, in its case North Yorkshire.

Organisations had applied for grants while “incorrectly believing that Ryedale District Council had the authority to award the CIL money,” he said.

“As a result, some of these entities had spent substantial time and resources without realising that their proposals would have to be considered by the new North Yorkshire Council after 31 March 2023.”

Cllr Jabbour concluded: “I think that everyone now agrees that Ryedale District Council should have been clearer about the process or should not have proceeded with this scheme in the first instance.”

Gareth Dadd, executive member for finance and resources, said a report would go to the executive in due course “considering in detail the merits of each individual case and try to put these into context within the priorities for CIL spending within the whole area, but in particular the Ryedale area”.

Cllr Dadd added that once the views of officers had been sought in regards to each application, the North Yorkshire Council would be writing to all of the organisations involved, highlighting to them when the report was due to be considered. He felt that the collective priorities with regards to CIL spending should have been taken more into account by Ryedale at the time that the grant scheme was launched.

Mark Smulian