THE new chair of North Yorkshire County Council has vowed to spend his year of office ‘getting out and about and meeting people’ on the ground in every division of the county.

Cllr Jim Clark has set out the ambition to attend an event at each of the council’s 68 divisions during his year and to support local charities.

He said he wanted to spend the year meeting community members

He said“We have great communities all over North Yorkshire doing great work to support the county, its economy, its children and young people, its older and vulnerable people. My intention is to get out and about as much as possible and to meet community members who help to make North Yorkshire the great place it is to live and work.”

Cllr Clark, who was nominated by Cllr Don Mackenzie, has played a key role as a North Yorkshire councillor, holding Executive positions since being elected to Harrogate’s Harlow division in 2001.

From 2003 to 2005 he was the Executive Member for finance and education, whilst between 2009 to 2010 he took on the schools’ brief, and helped introduce a much fairer secondary schools’ admissions policy.