Initiative's funding hopes set to be snubbed (From Gazette & Herald)

Initiative's funding hopes set to be snubbed

HOPES that a £5,000 grant will be awarded to the Malton and Norton Initiative to help promote the economy of the twin towns have received a major setback.

However, Community Centre volunteers in Malton are likely to have their free passes for use at Ryedale District Council's Wentworth Street car park saved.

The authority's policy and resources committee is recommending that the council - when it meets on March 3 - does not to give the grant to the Town Centre Initiative.

This decision followed a meeting of the community services and licensing committee, which agreed

by a single vote to back the idea, overturning advice from officers.

The chairman of the influential policy and resources committee, Coun Robert Wainwright, said the committee had made the decision because it felt that after supporting the Initiative for the past three years, any available funds should now be given to help other towns in Ryedale - Kirkbymoorside, Pickering or Helmsley.

However, following pleas by the Citizens' Advice Bureau, councillors agreed that the teams of volunteers at the Community Centre in Wentworth Street, Malton, should not have to pay to park their vehicles.

And instead of giving cash help of £4,000 to the Trackrod Rally, which has become an annual event in Ryedale, the district council should give practical support to the same value, said Coun Wainwright.

Moves to introduce charges on the St Nicholas Street car park at Norton have been deferred, pending an investigation, Coun Wainwright said.

Officers are to look at the position of people using the car park when going to the nearby Derwent Pool, and others living nearby in terraced homes who have no parking facilities.

Chief financial officer Trevor Teasdale said that bids totalling £593,000 on "new growth items" had been made for the coming financial year, starting in April. But only nine amounting to £255,000 have been listed as "high priority", including £150,000 to step up recycling of waste, an ICT disaster recovery system (£25,000) and community involvement projects (£35,000). Others have been labelled as medium or low bids.

The Ryedale District Council tax rise is expected to be three per cent, with the average Band D property tax currently standing at £2.93 a week. The rise, said Mr Teasdale, would be just nine pence a week.

The policy committee has agreed that the village green at Normanby can be sold by compulsory purchase to enable a Yorkshire Water Services scheme for a waste water project to go ahead. The committee heard that the move would result in village green status being removed.

A joint countryside project to be set up in Ryedale will help the rural

area, forward planning officer Julian Rudd told councillors. Its work will

include maximising take-up of the Government's new Environmental Stewardship Scheme in the district to benfit the farming community, working with the new Vale of Pickering Wetlands Initiative, which is being established with Scarborough council and other partners, and introducing a biodiversity action plan.

Updated: 14:57 Wednesday, February 16, 2005