Agenda and draft minutes

To note apologies for absence.

The Committee noted apologies from Cllr Burton who was substituted by Cllr Wells.

With Cllr Burton’s absence the Vice Chair Cllr Healey chaired the meeting, and the Committee voted to make Cllr Whitcroft Vice Chair for the meeting.

At this point in the meeting, Members and co-opted members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest, or other registerable interest, they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

Members were asked to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests or any disclosable pecuniary interests which they may have in respect of business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Place Scrutiny Committee held on the 23 September 2025.

Resolved: That the minutes of the Place Scrutiny Committee on 23 September 2025 be signed as a correct record of the meeting.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the Committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at our meetings. The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Friday 21 November 2025.

To register to speak please visit www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online registration form. If you have any questions about the registration form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services. Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

It was reported that there had been four registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Karen Woodwood spoke as a former manager of the Dial and Ride service in York. She outlined the challenges the service faced and recommended a new service should use smaller vehicles able to transport people in and out of town with full time staff employed as drivers.

Cllr Steward noted his disappointment that more hadn’t been done since Dial and Ride collapsed in York. He noted that the lose of the service had greatly affected residents’ mobility and had contributed to loneliness. He recommended that the Committee suggest the Council not spend time on consultants and look to quickly set up a local community transport program like is done across the country.

James Leather recommended that the Council change its stance on on street EV charging stating that the Council needed to support gully charging due to the challenges and costs to those who didn’t have a driveway.

Flick Williams raised her concern that York had been without door-to-door community transport for two years and stated that the Council had missed funding opportunities noting 11 North Yorkshire groups receiving funding for community transport. She stated that the demand in York was clear and asked that the Council didn’t waste time searching for demand for the service.

This report is a brief update to present a proposed scope of works to investigate opportunities to restart a community transport service in York. The intention is to find a model to replace the previous service, known as Dial & Ride, which folded at the end of 2023.

The Head of Transport Policy and Travel Behaviour introduced the report. He apologised for the time taken to reach this point and acknowledged the desire to get a community transport service running as soon as possible. He however, outlined the importance of undertaking the proposed study to ensure a long-term solution could be identified and developed that would be capable of unlocking sufficient funding to ensure a successful service.

The Committee expressed its disappointment and frustration that the Council had not achieved more to develop a new community transport service, highlighting that two years had passed since the service folded and the work undertaken by the scrutiny task and finish group on the topic. Members enquired whether instead of commissioning a study if the £20,000 allocated in the budget could instead be used to start a new community transport service while the Council sought additional funding. Officers explained that the £20,000 would not achieve much in launching the service and argued that the study was needed to ensure the Council could attract long term funding. Officers also explained that they were seeking to use consultants for this work as there was not the capacity in the Council for the work noting that North Yorkshire Combined Authority was now the Transport Authority.

Members asked whether the Council was confident that it would be able to secure funding for the service form the Combined Authority. It was noted that the Combined Authority was still awaiting its final grand settlement, therefore the amount of funding available was still to be determined, however, Officers explained that they would expect a community transport service to perform well in attracting funding against other schemes. The Committee also enquired about other funding options such as working with Adult Social Care and officers confirmed that those conversations would take place. Officers also confirmed to Members that they would explore potential available funding from the sale of vehicles form the pervious scheme.

The Committee raised concerns that the proposed scope of the study would be to narrow. Members noted that the task and finish group had investigated multiple different models and asked that the Council consider if a wider scope such as including transport for people in remote locations or SEND transport could help develop a better service. They also enquired as to whether a bridging service was a possibility and raised concern that the option of an in-house provision was not being sufficiently considered. Officers agreed the committee and stated that they would look at the possibility of expanding the scope for consideration in the study, as well as, exploring the option of an in-house run service. Officers also confirmed they would consider if a bridging position was possible but noted that this would be unlikely.

The Executive Member for Transport acknowledged the frustration and the harm the lack of a community transport service since the collapse of the Dial and Ride service. She stated that it was challenging for staff in transport due to the high volume  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Report to follow.

Officers introduced the report and gave a presentation on the developing Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy 2026-2030. The Committee considered the direction of the Council’s strategy for EV charging 2026-2030 and discussed whether more work should be done to ensure on street charging and enquired with officers if more could be done to address the challenges outlined by officers for why the Council was not planning to support the introduction of on street EV charging. Officers confirmed that they were happy to continue to review new technology and regulations around on street EV charging but as it stood, they were of the opinion, that there were significant challenges and issue with their role out, including the risk of electrocution.

The Committee asked officers if they knew why Government grants had been granted to Council’s who had undertaken pilots of on street EV charging considering the electrocution risk. Officers confirmed that they were surprised to see trails of this nature and agreed with the Executive Member for Transport that they would contract the Department for Transport about these risks. Officers noted that different trails had been run across the country and the Council was well placed sharing information and learning from different trails, currently they confirmed that authorities had to take on the risks associated with trailing products and that these were not without issues.

The Committee raised concerns of an equity of access to charging in the city and highlighted the disparity in charging prices. The Committee noted that for those that could use charging from their driveway at around 7p per KWH compared to prices at hyper hubs of around 70 to 80p per KWH. Officers acknowledged that the cost difference was large for those using commercial charging compared to at home charging. Officers highlighted that the Council owned the public charging network and therefore were able to run at cost keeping prices below other private charging locations. The fact that the Council’s charging points were from a commercial energy tariff made it harder to bring cost down and that potential regulatory charges could assist with this from government. Officers also noted that gully charging in many areas came with installation and yearly maintenance costs which would add to the cost of gully charging.

Members enquired about how often the Council’s charging points were used and raised concerns that the lack of access to on street charging for those without driveways, were a barrier to people switching from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars to EV. Officers confirmed that the network was supporting around 40,000 charging sessions annual but that these numbers varied across the type of charging sites with larger numbers attending hyper hubs. Regarding access Officers confirmed that a key proposal for the strategy was the continued rollout of standard charging points in the community that are easily accessible for residents across the city. Officers confirmed that more standard community charging it was confirmed would be joined by two new hyper hubs, as well as, working with a new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

To consider the Committee work plan.

The Committee considered their work plan for 2025-26 and considered whether the Committee should develop the proposal for a task and finish group to explore the options around delivering on street EV charging in the city. The Committee also noted that it was expecting the opportunity to consider the item on library needs assessment in the early 2026 and considered whether with the new Chief Operating Officers appointment if they could explore how the Council could expand its commercial activity.

Resolved:

                         i.         That the Committee would work with the Council’s Scrutiny Officer to develop a task and finish group proposal to be brought back to the Committee’s January meeting regarding On Street EV charging.

Reason:     To explore the possibility of introducing On Street EV charging in York.