Towns set to stand firm at devolution summit
FLORIDA RESIDENTS RETURN HOME AFTER IRMA
BARNSLEY AND DONCASTER will resist last-ditch attempts to secure their support for the election of a new metro-mayor for South Yorkshire, The Yorkshire
Post understands. At a special meeting next week, South Yorkshire council leaders will be asked to press ahead with the scheduled election of a new metro-mayor for South Yorkshire in May 2018, a key condition of the Sheffield City Region (SCR) devolution deal struck with then Chancellor George Osborne two years ago which promises new powers for the area and an extra £30m a year in funding.
Leaders will be offered an option which includes going ahead with the election but with a commitment to review the deal in 2020; however, Barnsley and Doncaster will stand firm, resolute in their convictions that a more expansive One Yorkshire deal will be a more prosperous one in the medium and long term for ratepayers living in those towns as well as businesses who trade in those areas of South Yorkshire.
A paper to be considered by the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority says: “In particular, this would be focused on moving to a Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority model, should a deal have emerged during this period.”
Over the summer, Barnsley and Doncaster joined 15 other authorities in the region to pledge their support for a single devolution deal covering the whole region, with Barnsley Council Leader Sir Stephen Houghton and Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones making clear their positions, writing in The Yorkshire Post.
Other options to be tabled at Monday’s meeting include asking the Government to agree to the appointment of an ‘interim mayor’ to unlock the money promised in the current deal to flow.
This would be followed by a mayoral election in 2020 for either the Sheffield City Region or the whole of Yorkshire if a regionwide deal has been agreed by that
point. Other options to be tabled include simply postponing the SCR election until 2020 while talks are progressed on the potential for a Yorkshire-wide devolution deal and the complete dissolution of the Sheffield City Region combined authority.
The special meeting will be told the failure to hold an election next year, or to agree the appointment of an interim mayor, would prevent the deal going ahead and mean the promised £30m a year would not be paid.
Areas including Greater Manchester and the West Midlands elected new metro-mayors in May to oversee powers and money transferred to them as part of ‘devolution deals’.
But Yorkshire has struggled to strike similar agreements amid political disagreement over how the region should be divided up, or whether a single deal can be struck for the whole of Yorkshire.
In a significant breakthrough over the summer, 17 Yorkshire authorities agreed in principle to the idea of a single Yorkshire deal with one region-wide elected mayor.
But Rotherham and Sheffield remain committed to the existing Sheffield City Region deal and Wakefield has yet to commit.
Ministers initially rejected the ‘One Yorkshire’ idea but last week Chancellor Philip Hammond said the Government was ready to be “flexible”.