July 1st must be a milestone in the history of Ryedale District. At that meeting, the Council unanimously recognised the need to provide projects with lasting benefit to the people of Ryedale, and resolved to set up a working party to consider whether the present capital plan meets that need. In other words, the Council is at last prepared to look at spending some more of its reserves. This does not mean that the reserves will be spent all at once – that is most unlikely - but it does mean that they are no longer sacrosanct.

And here, I must apologise to readers. I have misled you all! Before now, I have on different occasions put the value of Ryedale’s reserves at six or seven million pounds. Now, at last, I know the true figure – it is £8.4 million pounds! This is money which has been carefully managed over the last seven years by investment fund mangers, and has grown over time.

I wish I could understand why we need to keep such a large sum of money, when there is so much to use it for. To a degree, so far Council membership has been like living in an “Alice in Wonderland” world which is full of strange contradictions, particularly in regard to the reserves. It has been as though the Council has had a pot of gold, which it has buried in the ground, and pretended does not exist, while at the same time pleading poverty and complaining that we don’t have the resources to do the things we would like to do!

There is an understandable fear that, if the reserves are spent, the Council Tax will rise. This fear is not justified. As only about a quarter of the interest earned on the reserves is used to support the Council Tax, you don’t have to be a genius to work out that at least half, and perhaps as much as three quarters of the reserves could be spent without having any adverse impact on the Council Tax.

There is a fear that, if new facilities are built, more money will be required to maintain them, and this will have to come from the Council Tax. These fears are also misplaced.

It is possible, for example, that a new sports centre may require some support from the Council. On the other hand, such a sports centre, if used jointly with a school, will be partly paid for by the school, and, in the case of public sessions in dry sports centres, these often pay for themselves.

There are many useful projects which would need no financial support from the Council Tax whatsoever. No one is suggesting that the Council’s money should be spent unwisely.

For example, there has long been a need for an expansion of the York Road Industrial Estate, which, if publicly funded, could be set up in such a way as would allow local businesses to expand, and reduce unemployment in Ryedale. The upkeep of the extension would be paid for out of rents.

A full and imaginative refurbishment of the Milton Rooms might reduce the present cost of maintenance, and increase its popularity, so that increased use could lead to an increase in funds – without any Council subsidy.

We have been presented with an imaginative Transportation Study for Malton and Norton, but I understand there are only enough resources to build one of the proposed intersections with the A64. If another of the new roundabouts was funded by Ryedale, the Highways Agency would be responsible for its upkeep – not Ryedale Council tax payers.

Housing Associations pay for the upkeep of new social and affordable housing grant aided by Ryedale.

As a Malton councillor, I try to look at the wider picture and not to focus too much on my own ward. I am very well aware of the feeling that all Ryedale’s resources usually end up getting spent in Malton/Norton. That is one of the reasons which make me very keen to see if money spent on flood prevention could make a real difference to the villages and farms of rural Ryedale. Of course, any new flood defence works funded by Ryedale would be maintained by the appropriate government agency, and could reduce the strain on Ryedale’s scarce resources in times of emergency.