BITN 868_16,17,18,19 (cuts):BITN 772_20,21 (orbit) 17/3/11
BITN 868_16,17,18,19 (cuts):BITN 772_20,21 (orbit)
When the bus stops
North Yorkshire is more affluent than
many northern areas whose public
services are being slashed. But
residents in its remote villages are
finding that the public transport
services they rely on are under
threat. Helen Clifton concludes her
series on spending cuts
The stunning hills and the genteel stone residences of
the Nidderdale Valley sweep by – but passengers on
the local mini-bus aren’t admiring the views.
Instead, the talk on the winding journey from
Harrogate is of government cuts.
“If this service closed, I’d have to move,” says
Christine Harker, who lives in the tiny hamlet of
Stean. “There were two butchers who’d come up
here, and the mobile library. But there’s nothing like
that now. And you’ve got to eat, haven’t you?”
Harker agrees vociferously that cuts are necessary –
but not to this bus, her only lifeline into the local
town of Pateley Bridge to buy her weekly provisions.
“They had someone doing a survey of a class that
had been successfully running for 30 years with the
same teacher. What was the point of that? Just to give
someone a job. But this service – well, this is
essential, isn’t it?”
Like many voluntary sector organisations across the
sprawling county of North Yorkshire – England’s
largest – Little Red Bus Community Transport faces
being cut out of existence after the council slashed
£600,000 from its £6.5 million public transport
subsidy.
As well as buses, libraries and care homes are the
main targets. North Yorkshire County Council is
facing a cut of £69 million – 27 per cent of its total
budget – with £37 million in the first year alone.
Around 360 jobs are set to go.
Despite being a traditionally Tory authority, in
December council leader John Weighell made the
unusual move of joining Labour colleagues to write in
protest to communities secretary Eric Pickles. “The
timescale by which we are now expected to reduce
budgets further is bound to result in a higher impact
on frontline services than any of us would want,” he
said.
While the county council is responsible for social
services, education, transport, and roads, around a
dozen town councils also provide waste collection,
benefits services and leisure. And these too face cuts.
Selby Town Council, which is facing a £3 million
cut to its £10 million budget, has come up with a
16:35 Page 16
17/3/11 16:38 Page 17
SPENDING CUTS: NORTH YORKSHIRE
startling solution. Taking inspiration from the “They didn’t
Thatcherite ideology of “councils as commissioners”,
from August all services will be outsourced to the realise that
private sector.
Three hundred employees will be transferred to the
they wouldn’t
private sector. The number of councillors is being cut be looked after
from 40 to ten. Only 14 council posts will remain.
“In reality, these remaining roles will be hugely by their friends
diminished,” says Mark Harrison, Unison regional
organiser. in Whitehall.”
One of the first cuts is to get rid of two rangers at
Barlow Common – a local nature reserve that
provides education programmes and work
placements for adults with learning disabilities.
Although the site will remain open, these services
will cease.
“Hopefully in most of the other areas there will be
more sense in terms of their approach. They are all
Tory-led, but they don’t all share the same drive to
emulate Margaret Thatcher’s policies,” Harrison adds.
“It is a bit strange, because we are talking about a
county that is conservative with a small c, and quite
often with a big C. They didn’t realise that they
wouldn’t be looked after by their friends in
Whitehall.
“They have stopped criticising Labour for their
profligacy and started working out that perhaps
public services do have a value.”
The region, with its large retired population, close-
knit rural communities, genteel Victorian towns and a Left: Sheila Robinson
relatively high level of wealth, has an active disembarks from the Little
volunteer population, many of whom are relied upon Red Bus outside her home.
for services. Diane, her daughter, lives
Over in the idyllic market town of Knaresborough, next door. Below: driver
the local Age UK branch provides day and home care, David Rogers.
free benefits advice, social and travel clubs, and a Photos: Helen Clifton
21-27 MARCH 2011 · THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH 17
BITN 868_16,17,18,19 (cuts):BITN 772_20,21 (orbit) 17/3/11 16:39 Page 18

SPENDING CUTS: NORTH YORKSHIRE

shopping service. Chief officer Jane Farquharson says “It is a massive

it is already working on a shoestring.
“There is no back office here,” she laughs. “There is
no one to sharpen our pencils. We do all our pencil
sharpening ourselves.”
But most of the the county council’s savings will
come from a £20.5 million cut in its adult and
community services budget. Half of that will go in the
next year. As a result, Age UK Knaresborough will
this year see its annual £70,000 budget cut by 3 per
cent; next year it will be more like 15-20 per cent.
Four out of 17 staff are being made redundant. Its
valued bathing service has lost its £27,000 annual
council grant and could close.
“People get their hair done, their toenails clipped.
It’s a social outing. They are treated like human
beings,” explains Farquharson. “But we are now
faced with having no funding whatsoever.
“Maybe until you are in a situation where you are
not safe in a bath, you don’t know what it like. But it’s
absolutely vital, especially for those who care for
people with dementia. But they are all going to lose
out.
“We are all going to have to cut back so much there
will be nothing left and charities will go under. And
you can’t merge two charities into one in six months.
It’s just not possible.”
Farquharson has grave concerns that the slow
transition to personalised care budgets – care package
funding given directly to clients – and the way GP
consortia are being introduced could mean that care
is compromised.
“It just hasn’t been thought through properly. When
older people get sick, they want people to come and
help them. They are very vulnerable at that time. The
rural area. The
care just
doesn’t go far
enough and we
have got a lot
of isolation.”
system works with young people very well but a lot
of older people don’t want to ask for help.”
She argues that continuity – and cashflow – could
be guaranteed through Age UK acting as a broker for
personalised budgets, using the funds to pay for the
services it already provides.
“It is a massive rural area. The care just doesn’t go
far enough and we have got a lot of isolation. My
“I thought this concern is that we have a level of need from people
who are quietly sitting behind their doors and out of
government contact.”
Driving deeper into the Dales, that isolation
were going to becomes ever more apparent.
save money on Sheila Robinson, like Harker, will have to move if
the bus is cut. The 85-year-old cares for her bipolar
waste rather daughter Diane, 53. The pair live side by side in
rented cottages outside the tourist-filled town of
than Pateley Bridge and survive on benefits.
dismantling Both are keen walkers and the activity stabilises
Diane’s condition. They have lived in Harrogate
organisations.” before. They don’t want to return.

18 THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH · 21-27 MARCH 2011

BITN 868_16,17,18,19 (cuts):BITN 772_20,21 (orbit)
There is one bus an hour from Harrogate and a taxi
costs £28. But the Little Red Bus dial-a-ride service
picks up and drops customers off outside their homes
for a few pounds per journey and a £10 annual fee.
“The service is excellent; the drivers are very, very
good. We should be lost without it,” Robinson says.
“Everything is so expensive to buy in Pateley Bridge,
and it is so difficult carrying all your bags up the
hills. We wouldn’t be able to manage without it.”
Keeping people in the Dales is key for the area’s
survival. Almost half of all villages in the area are
holiday homes. In 2005 the national park authority
introduced a ban on new homes being sold to
outsiders. Yet over 90 per cent of stock is exempt.
The Yorkshire Dales Affordable Housing
Development Plan to build over 100 new homes was
approved in December but faced an uphill battle after
residents complained it would “blight” the area.
“From a thriving little village, this place is now just
empty,” says another passenger, Claudia Parsons, of
Lofthouse. “It’s a tragedy that the young people are
being forced out of the village. The house prices are
just astronomical.
“What always amazes me about these people is that
they come out here and say they must have a place in
the country. And then they complain about the cocks
crowing and the cows mooing.”
Over in the Little Red Bus’s semi-rural depot
outside Harrogate, chief executive Lyn Costelloe is
becoming increasingly frustrated by the gap between
the council’s rhetoric and the reality.
“There are separate vehicles coming from social
services, from health, from education. We would put
all of these people on to one bus.
“We are much more flexible. We could provide
feeder services to so many local areas if we were able
to develop that infrastructure. Because we are local
operators, we are best placed to know what local
communities need. All we need is some support.”
The organisation has grown from humble
beginnings with two minibuses in 1986 to a fleet of
17/3/11 16:39 Page 19
Facing page: Christine
Harker on the bus. “If this
service closes, I’d have to
move,” she says; Lyn
Costelloe of Little Red Bus
sees a gap between council
reality and rhetoric. Above:
Age UK’s Jane Farquharson
warns that people could
die as a result of the cuts
“The service is
excellent; the
drivers are
very, very
good. We
should be lost
without it.”
76 vehicles and 45 staff. All profits are put back into
community services – school runs, taking adults with
learning disabilities to day care, and remote rural
services. It also runs car volunteer schemes, where
people use their own vehicles as public transport in
exchange for the price of petrol.
But its council grant has been cut from £150,000 in
2005 to £50,000 this year. And the contracts Little
Red Bus relies on are being slashed.
Yet local transport providers are determined to
prove their viability. The Dales & Bowland
Community Interest Company (CIC) has already saved
the popular DalesBus weekend service from closure
by making efficiencies. Over the last year it has
doubled the number of passengers, cutting the
council subsidy by £4 per journey.
The Little Red Bus has partnered with the CIC to
form the Dales Integrated Transport Alliance, and is
bidding for funding direct from the government’s
£560 million Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
“We are the Big Society – we are already doing it,”
says Costelloe. “If the council carefully consulted
with us, we could help them. But the problem is that
they have had to react so quickly. Yet these are the
communities that really need our help. Out in the
Dales, there is no alternative.”
Back in Knaresborough, Farquharson agrees that
North Yorkshire’s third sector could fill the gaps.
Already, the region’s different Age UK branches are
forming co-ops to work more effectively.
But despite her forthright positivity, she is
increasingly alarmed that the speed and depth of the
cuts are just overwhelming for the region’s volunteers
and charities to cope with.
“I thought this government were going to save
money on waste rather than dismantling
organisations. But somewhere along the line they
have switched to axing everything.
“It really needs to be thought through. Otherwise,
we could be facing deaths this winter; there is
absolutely no doubt about it.”
21-27 MARCH 2011 · THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH 19