Agreement has been reached to hand control of North Yorkshire Council property in Ripon to the city council in the first major so-called double devolution deal by the authority.
Responsibility of Hugh Ripley Hall, Wakeman’s House and Ripon Town Hall will be transferred to Ripon City Council following talks between civic leaders and council staff.
The deal will be the first major transfer of assets from North Yorkshire Council to a town or parish authority since 2023 when the new unitary authority was launched.
North Yorkshire Council has faced criticism from some councillors about delays in handing down powers, which were identified as a key aim of local government reorganisation.
Confirming the deal, Councillor Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire Council, said: “We always knew it was going to be difficult and we always knew it would take some time.
“There are people criticising us but they’re missing the point that in the first year or so of the new council, we were just making sure that we got everything safe and legal that we had to.
“Now we can move on to the things that we’ve said that we’ve always wanted to do, with double devolution being one of them.
“We’ve done things like Knaresborough Market and one or two other smaller schemes, but this will be the first major scheme that this council has done.”
Cllr Les said he attended a recent Ripon City Council meeting where an agreement in principle was backed unanimously.
He added: “We made some big steps that night in actually moving it on and a large part of it is down to Cllr Andrew Williams, who has been assiduous in trying to move this along.”
Cllr Williams, Ripon Minster and Moorside division councillor on North Yorkshire Council and leader of the majority group on Ripon City Council, welcomed the agreement.
He said: “It will mean that the people of Ripon will once again own their community assets instead of leasing them.
“They will actually own them and will have the ability to do whatever they wish with the buildings as a result, within reason obviously.
“The intent is to enhance the buildings and give them a greater community purpose.”
Cllr Williams said it was proposed that the city council leased the town hall on a 99-year term.
He added: “There’s a break clause within the lease that can be exercised by the city council if we can’t deliver what we believe that we can deliver.
“But if you look to what the people of Skipton did with their town hall — took an effectively dysfunctional, poorly repaired building and secure substantial investment within it so that it’s now an integral part of the Skipton community life — we ought to do the same.”
The councillors said management of the outdoor market in Ripon could be discussed by the two councils in the future.
