SKIPTON councillors have 'expressed interest' in taking on the running of the town's Aireville Park.

Town councillors have also said they would be interested in taking over public toilets, currently run by Craven District Council, which is also responsible for the park, and The Ginnel, off Newmarket Street, which leads to The Wilderness, an area of woodland already owned by the town council.

Other suggestions put forward at last night's full meeting of Skipton Town Council as possibilities following a devolution of powers after local government reorganisation in April, were garage sites, premises licences and an ability to be able to summon people to scrutinising meetings.

Control of the town's revenue- making car parks was however ruled out by the chief officer as something North Yorkshire County Council would not agree to.

Councillor David Noland urged members not to 'rule out' taking on Craven Leisure - the leisure centre currently run by Craven Council, while Councillor Claire Nash suggested the recently refurbished town hall, the home of the town council, might not have enough space if the authority was to take on extra responsibilities, with the likely increase of staff.

Councillors also heard that it was hoped by senior Craven councillors that the town hall be turned over to a trust instead of becoming an asset of the new North Yorkshire Council when it comes into being on April 1.

Councillor Robert Heseltine, who is also a county and district councillor, also warned his colleagues to be careful, reminding them how the town council had taken on the responsibility of closed burial grounds following the last local government reorganisation 50 years ago, and that had caused a lot of trouble.

Councillors, who had earlier heard a presentation from a representative of Truro City Council of his experiences of local government reorganisation in 2009 when Cornwall moved to a single unitary authority, agreed to go ahead with putting forward expressions of interest to North Yorkshire County Council.

The council will debate the issue again at its next full meeting on March 16 before the deadline of March 31 to submit its case to the county council.

Councillor Stuart Roden, chair of Truro City Council's finance and general purposes committee, said local government reorganisation had been a success for Truro - but a success born out of circumstance and not a result of planning.

The city council was now responsible for its main park, which had been transformed, and its public toilets - after being told by the new unitary authority unless the city council took them on, they would close.

The council now had 100 acres of land to look after, had a large events team and ran twice weekly farmers markets.

Cllr Roden said he believed people in the city were happy and that they were doing a good job.

"It has been fantastically good for the city, but there was no masterplan, it was a result of good luck and circumstance," he said.

Cllr Peter Madeley said the council needed to be aware of what it was capable of taking on and agreed with toilets and Aireville Park.

"We have a lot of parks and we have the expertise already to do that, and the toilets have been in a terrible state for a long time without any investment," he said.

In November last year, North Yorkshire County Council said it would ask larger town councils in the county to submit bids for a pilot scheme that could see them taking on the management of some services in their area on behalf of the new North Yorkshire Council. A total of six councils will be selected to take part in a pilot to see how it goes.

Town and parish councils can choose which services or assets they would like to manage, rather than choose from a limited list, but, proposals must benefit communities, not incur extra costs and be based on a strong business case.

Following evaluation, up to six submissions will be developed further in conjunction with the new North Yorkshire Council, from April.

The county council says a successful example of towns and villages taking on the management of local assets is the transfer of 31 libraries to community groups in 2015. In October, the county council’s executive agreed to grant leases for a further 10 years to support the continued operation and development of community-run libraries.