Hudson House – YDNPA decision
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority ( YDNPA ) will continue to help to fund Hudson House in Reeth after 2013.
At the full authority meeting on Tuesday, March 29, a majority agreed with the proposal put forward by Coun Stuart Parsons that £20,000 a year should be ring fenced within the promotion of community understanding budget from 2013 to 2015. This will be £7,000 a year less than Hudson House is receiving from the YDNPA at present and so, as N Yorks County Coun Blackie said, it would receive its fair share of the budget cuts.
It had been proposed to stop funding Hudson House after 2013 ( see Hudson House, Reeth) but many of those who responded to the public consultation about the budget cuts the YDNPA planned to make were concerned that this would lead to the collapse of this community facility. David Butterworth, the YDNPA chief executive, commented that the consultation showed that Hudson House merited the greatest consideration when assessing the budget cuts.
N Yorks County Coun Parsons said: “It is fairly obvious that if we do not support Hudson House we are threatening more than a tourist information centre – we are completely threatening a community. The importance of this consultation is we can as an Authority turn round and say ‘thank you for your comments, we have listened , we have taken on board everything you said.’ ”
When seconding Coun Parson’s proposal Coun John Blackie said: “In a consultation like this you ask the question and then at your peril if you ignore the response.” He added that if the YDNPA pulled out of the partnership which supported Hudson House others might follow and this would lead to the collapse of what he described as a wonderful community initiative and one which epitomised how the Authority should be working with residents and parish councils.
Ann Brooks however asked where the additional funds set aside for Hudson House would come from and requested a detailed report on the structure and financing of this project.
In his proposal, which was accepted by a majority of the members, Coun Parsons asked that YDNPA officers should enter into immediate and robust discussions with all partners to ensure the long term future of Hudson House. “It is now up to others to change and find a way of retaining the service.” The YDNPA should therefore work with other local authorities and the public to find a way to save the facility.
Mr Butterworth reported that he had met with the chair of the Hudson House partnership the previous day. He said that it could not be a question of the YDNPA riding to the rescue of another local venture that was really the responsibility of another body.
He reminded members that there would soon be a review of all of the YDNPA visitor centres. The funds that the YDNPA gives to Hudson House support the Authority’s visitor centre there. This, however, did not compare well with those at Aysgarth, Hawes, Grassington and Malham. For that reason, he said, the members would have to be careful when they prepared the terms of reference for that review that these took into consideration the community aspect of the Hudson House project.