Independent commission hears evidence on how North Yorkshire’s rural economy can achieve its potential
More power to the elbow of North Yorkshire for drawing attention to the challenges its rural communities face through this innovative approach. This story tells us:
North Yorkshire’s rural communities are full of economic potential but longstanding obstacles needed to be cleared to allow them to realise it, an independent commission has been told.
The North Yorkshire Rural Commission, set up specifically to look at the challenges facing North Yorkshire’s rural communities, has heard evidence from small businesses and large organisations on the county’s jobs and economy.
The eight commissioners tasked with investigating key areas of concern in England’s largest county, 85 per cent of which is classed as rural or super sparse, heard that the big ticket items which would help unlock the rural economy included an overhaul of public transport, education linking learning to business start-up opportunities, significant investment in mobile and superfast broadband and devolution.
The first to give evidence was former farmer, Mark Pybus, who highlighted the issues around rural broadband. Mr Pybus started to diversify on his family farm near Catterick 15 years ago and is now the manager of Crabtree Hall Business Centre.
The centre employs 32 people and offers serviced office space for small businesses alongside a café and a children’s nursery.
But Mr Pybus said broadband has been an issue from early on.
“We opened the business centre in 2007 but by 2010 the broadband we had was not fit for purpose so we started looking for an alternative. We invested in and installed our own super-fast connection in 2012/13 and Crabtree Community Broadband (CCB) followed.”
Mr Pybus said this provided affordable superfast connectivity to businesses and villages, predominantly west of the A1, as far as Masham and Leyburn.