Let's Talk

Residents were asked to comment on how we spend our budget of £1.3 billion. Currently, 50 per cent of our overall budget goes to help vulnerable people – with the largest amount at 32 per cent going on adult social care and health. Highways and transport get nine per cent, housing five per cent and education six per cent.

We had responses from people of all ages who live and work across North Yorkshire to the consultation.

The survey will help inform decisions on the 2025 to 2026 budget and the Council Plan to 2029.

The budget for 2025 to 2026 was approved at a full council meeting on 14 February.

You can read the full report on the budget including the findings of the Let’s Talk Money survey here.

This survey took place from 9 September to 4 November 2024. Over 3,000 of you told us whether you are physically active, what is important to you about being active, and any barriers you face. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

You can read the full report and next steps in our  Let's Talk Active report (pdf / 910 KB).

The Let's Talk Rubbish survey took place in Summer 2024. We had 10,475 responses. You can read the results of the conversation in the  Let's Talk Rubbish report (pdf / 646 KB), which will help shape the future of household recycling collections. 

Watch our short animation about the proposal for recycling collections.

Why we are reviewing how we collect recyclable waste

This information explains why we asked you about your household rubbish and recycling in our survey.

We formed the new North Yorkshire Council in April 2023. Before then, the seven former borough and district councils collected all household waste. Although we now provide the same collection service for non-recyclable waste and garden waste, recycling is still collected in different ways across the county.

We want to make the recycling collection service the same for all North Yorkshire residents.

This will help us to:

• make the best use of resources
• provide value for money

We also need to improve recycling collections to meet the requirements of the Environment Act 2021. The UK Government expects all councils to recycle 65 percent of their waste by 2035.

How we recycle now

We reviewed our current recycling collection methods. We identified three different options for further investigation:

Option 1: All recycling in one 240-litre wheelie bin collected fortnightly

Option 2: Separate recycling boxes for each material, collected fortnightly

Option 3: Two 240-litre wheelie bins (one for glass, cans and plastic, and one for paper and card), with alternate fortnightly collections

For each of the three shortlisted options, we have looked at:

1. Value for money
2. Contamination
3. Carbon reduction

1. Value for money

Recycling with wheelie bins (option 1 and 3) requires the fewest vehicles, highlighting the efficiency of using wheelie bins and single compartment vehicles.

• Option 1 (all recycling in one wheelie bin) could see the lowest decrease in total costs and the least value for money. Higher contamination levels combined with lower quality material could result in higher treatment costs and less income
• Option 2 (separate recycling boxes) could see the second highest cost saving, but needs the most staff, due to the high number of vehicles required to operate the service
• Option 3 (two 240-litre wheelie bins for glass, cans and plastic, and paper and card collected alternate fortnightly) could see the highest cost reduction

With all options, there are extra costs for containers and vehicles. These costs will be minimised by changing vehicles as they reach the end of their life.

2. Contamination

Other local authorities have found that contamination (non-recyclable items) is lower when residents sort materials (options 2 and 3). As part of any changes, we would provide information to all residents about recycling effectively and helping to increase recycling rates.

3. Carbon reduction

Emissions, from collections and onward haulage of recyclable material, is the only area that impacts the total amount from the baseline. Only small, marginal changes are observed across all options.

Other things to consider with bags and boxes (option 2):

• issues with recycling items escaping from boxes and bags on windy days
• paper collected in bags or boxes becomes wet when it rains and can be rejected by paper mills meaning further costs and reduced income
• wheelie bins are much easier to use and empty, with less manual handling involved for residents and collection crews

Conclusion

Following a review of the different collection methods, option 3 (two wheelie bins, one for glass, cans and plastic, and one for paper and card, with alternate fortnightly collections) has been identified as the preferred collection method for most properties. Fortnightly collection of non-recyclable rubbish will continue.

• option 3 provides best value for money, as high-quality recyclable materials would be presented at the kerbside. These can be sold to manufacturers to recycle and make new products
• two wheelie bins would help residents recycle more much material. A third wheelie bin is provided for normal rubbish. Residents can continue to opt in for a garden waste collection
• properties with limited storage or access would still need other methods of collection. This may include sack collections and communal or different sized bins, as used now

This survey took place in Spring 2024. Over 2,000 of you told us your experiences of accessing healthy food and what food you waste. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

Below is a brief summary of what you told us, and you can read the full report and next steps in our  Let's Talk Food report (pdf / 857 KB).

2053 people filled in our survey.

You told us the following:

• while most people in the survey (86%) say they have a healthy and balanced diet, most people (81%) also say they want to eat healthier food
• while many people (81%) say they find it easy to access healthy food, people say that lowering the cost of healthy food, reducing unhealthy food advertising and supporting local gardens or food projects are most likely to make it easier to get healthy food
• around half the people in the survey say they never or hardly ever throw away unused food, while around a quarter of people throw away unused food once a week or more
• other data suggests this is likely to underestimate the amount of food wasted in North Yorkshire - an example, analysis of the kerbside waste collected suggests that kitchen food waste makes up more than 15% of the contents of bins (see page 28 of the main report)
• the most common things making it difficult to reduce food waste are food going off and food being sold in larger amounts than needed - having skills and expertise to repurpose food and use leftovers are also key to reducing food waste

We had 2,600 responses from people of all ages who live and work across North Yorkshire. The feedback from the consultation was used to inform the North Yorkshire Council 2024 budget report. 

You can read a summary of the key results on our Let’s Talk Money feedback page on Commonplace.

In autumn 2022, we launched Let’s Talk, our biggest ever countywide conversation to understand how residents feel about their local area and their priorities, as well as the impact the cost-of-living crisis is having on lives.

We received nearly 3,900 responses to Let’s Talk Local and nearly 2,700 responses to Let’s Talk Money from people of all ages, who live and work across all areas of North Yorkshire. 

This information is being used to inform our new council’s decisions, policies and services going forward.

We are the geographically largest council in England, with a mix of rural, urban and coastal communities, all of which have common challenges but also competing and differing needs. Therefore, a strong community voice is essential. Let’s Talk North Yorkshire is one way we are using to empower that voice and is a clear commitment to listening to you.

The  Let's Talk Local report (pdf / 812 KB) summarises some of the key results.

Let’s Talk Climate was launched in February 2023 as a result of you highlighting climate change as a top five priority of Let’s Talk Local. We wanted to understand your thoughts on the topic in order feed your views and opinions into our draft climate change strategy.

We received over 1,500 responses from people of all ages, who live and work across all areas of North Yorkshire.

The  Let’s Talk Climate report (pdf / 5 MB) summarises some of the key results.

Let’s Talk Transport took place from May to July 2023 – this was the first part of our conversation with you about how you travel in North Yorkshire, to help inform the Local Transport Plan. 

We received over 4,800 responses. These responses will be used to help the development of the Local Transport Plan, which will then be shared for your input.

The  Let’s Talk Transport (pdf / 1 MB) report summarises some of the key results.