Chairman’s Report May 2026

I would like to start by thanking the Vice Chairman and all Parish Councillors for their attendance and contributions at Council Meetings and all the extra work they undertake for the benefit of the Parish, whether it be tree planting, installing the Christmas Lights, installing dog waste bins or undertaking other repair work.

Being a Councillor does not just involve attending the monthly meetings. On a daily basis our mail boxes are inundated with information from North Yorkshire Council, some of which is not relevant to a council of our size. We are contacted by Parishioners about various issues, some of which we are able to answer, others have to be referred to Louise our Parish Clerk to deal with. 

We are all volunteers and are committed to doing our best for the benefit of the Community. Sometimes we make mistakes as in the case of the recent planning issue, relating to an application for development of land on North Garth Lane, which was quickly sorted out by our Parish Clerk to enable it to be corrected.  This was reported to the Monitoring Officer at County Hall who confirmed a mistake had occurred but that the situation had been dealt with satisfactorily. Anyone not happy about this should contact the Monitoring Officer. 

To clarify the situation regarding the publication of Agendas for the monthly Parish Council Meetings, usually held on the 2nd Thursday of each month. The closing dates for items for the Village News is the 18th of the month, earlier for the January edition. This is, therefore, not an option as Agendas for the meetings have to be published 3 clear days before the meeting. These are posted on the website and a copy put on the Parish Council noticeboard located to the right hand side of the noticeboard opposite the Post Office.

A number of residents have asked that the Agendas should also be published on social media and this is to be discussed at the Monthly meeting following this meeting. 

Minutes of the meetings are circulated to parish councillors ahead of the next meeting when they are agreed, or amended and then adopted at the meeting at which point they are posted on the website. 

We have been consulted on over 25 planning applications during the last year. Mostly for extensions to existing dwellings or work to be carried out on properties in the Conservation Area of the Village. 

I say consulted as we are not the planning authority and are only asked for our comments. An increasing number of planning applications are assigned “delegatable Decision which means the decision is made by the Planning Department. Very few go to the Planning Committee for determination.

The Sheriff Hutton Holiday Lodge Park at the top of Daskett Hill is subject to yet another planning application to extend residency to 11 months per year, which the Parish Council has strongly objected to as it is seen as a stepping stone to application for permanent residence. The decision is due to be made by the end of this week.

The enforcement officer has been informed of several breaches of planning conditions and he is dealing with these. They include unfinished screening and the inappropriate fence around the site which is supposed to be an acoustic fence to prevent noise causing problems for adjacent residents, but is merely a fence  

After 4 years of planning applications and appeals, permission for the Travellers’ site on Cornborough Road was granted by the Inspector with the removal of the condition for family use only, despite the Parish Councils several objections.  One of the main reasons for this was due to North Yorkshire Council’ not providing enough Travellers’ sites across the county.

Sadly permission has been granted to turn Quarmby’s Coffee Shop into a house, again despite representations from the Parish Council that the loss of the site as a retail outlet would be detrimental to the village.

Before the abolition of District Councils, Ryedale Council were in the process of creating a Ryedale Local Development Plan which was subsequently scrapped.   Now North Yorkshire Council is undertaking formulation of the North Yorkshire Development Plan covering the whole of North Yorkshire.  So far there has been a Call for Sites and several in the Sheriff Hutton Parish have been offered but no work has yet been done on evaluating them. 

A time line for production of this plan should be available by the end of June when we will then know the procedure. In the past following evaluation and the acceptable proposed sites agreed the Parish Council were contacted and a public consultation took place when Parishioners could make their feelings known. We can only hope this will happen again. 

This will be a long process as it covers not only housing development but many other aspects.

Over the past year our village has been devastated by the excavations carried out on footpaths and roads by Quickline’s contractors, including Spectrum for the installation of superfast broadband. There seems to be no logic as to where and when these excavations are being carried out. When it appears the work has been completed in one area , they are back again with further work  being carried out. Road closures cause a great amount of inconvenience and the reinstatement work leaves a lot to be desired.  

Despite agreement of where the trench should have been dug for access to the village hall, the contractors chose to dig across the Play Area. Contractors also succeeded in setting fire to the hedge near the Bowling Green, destroying the equipment shed and all the valuable equipment in there. 

This is all being done under a Central Government initiative to bring superfast broadband to the area and apparently they are not permitted to use BT/Open Reach ducting and equipment.

We have already had similar work completed by Voneus and the worry is that another provider may set its sights on Sheriff Hutton Parish and the whole process start again.

Problems with Yorkshire Water are a constant bugbear. Major work on the sewers in the East End of the Village resulted in road closures and great inconvenience to residents. Communication with Yorkshire Water was extremely difficult and information hard to obtain. More work has been done to rectify the water leak outside the Middleton House site which resulted in the road being closed and traffic diverted through Castle side, Castle View and West End Road. Insufficient signage resulted in chaos with heavy goods vehicles, buses and cars trying to find their way through. The constant leak at the junction of Castleside and Finkle Street is still being investigated.

Work is currently going on to line the sewers in the village to prevent surface water entering the sewer pipes. 

The roads and paths in the village are in a terrible state, particularly Main Street. Due to the very wet winter weather many deep potholes appeared throughout the village, causing risk to pedestrians and risk of damage to vehicles. Problems are constantly being reported to Highways and some of these have been addressed.

Road closures in the area are also a constant annoyance. The Parish Council are not always given advance notice, sometimes notification arrives after the work has been done and more often the dates given do not correspond to when the work is done. There seems to be no co-ordination regarding closures of roads in the area,. The road closure signs are a joke not giving enough notice of which particular stretch of road is closed often leaving people needing to access Easingwold having to undertake vast detours. The road signs are frequently left in place even when the roads are open making life very difficult for motorists.

Having received 1 year’s funding for development of a Neighbourhood Plan it was extremely disappointing that in June 2025 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government stopped further funding before work had been completed on the most important aspect of the plan regarding housing development. Parish Councils are now expected to cover costs.

To take this forward a housing needs assessment is needed for which expert help is required. Costs for this portion alone have been quoted around £8/9,000 upwards.    Following completion of this and analysis there would be the cost of producing the plan, submitting it for approval and acceptance which are an unknown quantity. The Parish Council is unable to commit to this level of funding and therefore the decision was made to suspend the work until such times more external funding is available.   There is, of course, no guarantee that having completed all the work that the plan would be accepted by North Yorkshire Council as part of planning policy.

Councillors would like to express their sincere thanks to those who gave their time on this project and would welcome any information regarding avenues that can be approached for funding to complete the work.

Grass cutting and Street Lighting are the biggest items of annual expenditure.  The Parish Council is responsible for street lights throughout the village and in an attempt to reduce the cost electricity is now supplied through the North Yorkshire Council group contract. 

Parking in the village, particularly in the Mill Lane Avenue area continues to be a problem. With vehicles being parked on the grass verges and paths creating deep ruts. Offending vehicles can be reported to the Traffic Enforcement Officer.   

The Parish Council could not operate without the expertise and invaluable guidance of our Parish Clerk Louise, who deals with everything in a professional way with great tact and diplomacy, seeking help and advice from wherever necessary to ensure the smooth running of the council. Thank you Louise for keeping us in line and dealing with problems that arise.