Council leader frustrated by long wait for ‘One Yorkshire’
THE LEADER of the council serving England’s largest county has spoken of his frustration over the length of time it is taking to settle a decision on devolution.
North Yorkshire County Council leader Carl Les said Whitehall’s focus on Brexit was impeding progress towards handing power to the region.
Four months has passed since 18 of the 20 councils in Yorkshire submitted their One Yorkshire bid to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for consideration.
It outlined plans for a £125m-ayear, 30-year-deal and an elected Yorkshire Mayor to be in power by 2020.
Speaking ahead of a meeting in York on Thursday of the 18 local authorities from across Yorkshire signed up to the One Yorkshire devolution proposal, he said he remained hopeful that a decision would be made this year.
Coun Les said: “We feel we are losing out to areas that have already got mayors.
“The biggest issue is still what the devolved area is going to look like. When that’s decided we will have to move very quickly on what we want to see devolved.”
Coun Les described a private meeting on Friday between council leaders from North Yorkshire and York and Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake at which the merits of the One Yorkshire and a York City Region proposals for devolution as a “good and open discussion”.
At the meeting, Mr Hollinrake forwarded arguments for the York City Region proposal, but Coun Les said One Yorkshire remained the councils’ favoured proposal.
He said: “One Yorkshire is fair. It has to be fair for everybody. We can’t have the rural areas overwhelmed by the urban areas.”
He declined to comment on suggestions that the Government viewed the One Yorkshire proposal as too large an entity.
A meeting of the North Yorkshire and York council leaders on Friday heard concerns raised that efforts to prepare for post-devolution across a 3,000sq mile area could be “putting the cart before the horse”, should an alternative area for devolution be decided upon.