Appeal to bickering councils on deal for devolution

Mayor warns North Yorks could miss out on funds

NORTH YORKSHIRE risks losing the opportunity for devolution if local leaders do not “grow up and make a decision” on how they propose councils are structured in the future, a neighbouring metro mayor has warned.

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen met with Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council ( NYCC), yesterday at the bridge in Croft- on- Tees, which marks the border between the two areas, to back plans for the county to gain a directly- elected mayor as part of a devolution deal from government.

But he warned that if fighting between NYCC and district council leaders continued, the prospect of devolution may not come to pass.

“Given the timescale, North Yorkshire is at a real risk of missing out on devolution,” he said.

“And it requires those leaders to come up with options – and whether that’s one option or more it should not matter, the leaders look at the bigger picture.”

Conservative Mr Houchen said in Tees Valley, wins such as keeping and expanding the Teesside International Airport or saving the Redcar steelworks would not have been possible without a directly elected mayor, and it would be “absolutely tragic” if North Yorkshire missed out due to infighting.

“If there’s one option or two options, even if you can’t bridge the gap between the two, let government decide. At some point they have to grow up and make a decision and the window is closing,” he said.

Mr Houchen declined to back any particular proposal for reorganising local government in North Yorkshire, but said the ultimate prize must be securing the new funds and powers promised in any future devolution deal.

It comes as North Yorkshire’s seven district council leaders announced their proposal to split the county in two – along east/ west lines – to form two unitary authorities, the first encompassing Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby, and York to cover a population of 465,375, and then Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, and Richmondshire would join and cover 363,297 people.

But Tory NYCC leader Coun Les said creating two authorities would cause services to split and would be expensive.

“I don’t like the idea of splitting up the identity of the country, but they will have to split up the services and you get disruption and increased costs and poorer services for a while,” he said.

While Coun Les admitted service quality would recover he said: “You will never lose the increased costs, and our proposal is saying there will be one of everything.”

He said he was also against the idea of “annexing” York by forcing the city into one of the authorities. Under NYCC’s plans, City of York Council would remain as a unitary authority as it is currently run.