RYEDALE District Council has formulated an “improvement plan” after a review of its operations.

The plan, which was discussed at a meeting of the policy and resources committee last Thursday, addresses concerns raised in a peer review by the local government association (LGA) from October last year.

Though it praised the council in some aspects of its services such as planning, and said that the staff are “committed and focused”, the peer review questioned the “length and standard of debate” at council meetings.

It also said that “the behaviour of some members was disruptive”, and reported that “council meetings were described as a ‘circus’ by a number of internal and external stakeholders.”

A new plan to tackle these criticisms was introduced at Thursday’s meeting by chief executive Janet Waggott.

She said: “The team were brought in at our request to focus on the things we’d asked them to do.

“The improvement plan simply picks up all the recommendations that the LGA made, and they have been broken down into actions so we can implement those suggested improvements.”

The plan includes 10 overall points of action, each to be monitored by the overview and scrutiny committee.

Among the actions include a commitment to “clear, firm and consistent chairing of council meetings”, for “members to agree and commit to an agreed set of values, behaviours and ways of working”, and for “members to respect and use the clear majority and mandate of the ruling group” - currently the Conservatives.

The plan was voted through with four votes for, one against and three abstentions.

It will now be discussed and finalised at full council on April 6.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, members unanimously agreed to recommend to full council that a new “waste transfer station” be built at Kirby Misperton. This was described in the officers’ report as the “least worst” option for Ryedale, and was preferred over taking waste to Seamer. The new station will be conditional on a contribution of up to £265k per annum from the authority.