North should have its own government

From: Gareth Robson, Kent House Road, Beckenham.

THE North Yorkshire devolution debate drags on, laudably covered by The Yorkshire Post.

Single unitary; two unitaries either side of the A1; York standing alone – or perhaps not.

Nowhere do we see the big picture; much more must be devolved from London. So much indeed that our anachronistic county level of local government is too parochial and small.

England needs regional government with only very limited powers retained in London ( defence; international trade negotiations).

We need a North region, with fully devolved powers, and within it today’s existing districts, boroughs and city councils.

Only in that way can the North balance the economic power of individual cities and the agricultural and tourism power of its stunning landscapes.

So I offer this solution. Retain counties only as “brown- sign geographic areas of interest and historic reference” ( in Yorkshire’s case, the brown signs could say “welcome to Yorkshire” or “welcome to the West Riding of Yorkshire etc” – a debate to be had there).

But there would be just two tiers of local authority: North region, and within it the existing districts, boroughs and city councils.

Spread the regional government offices far and wide across the region rather than allow any one city to dominate.

We have to think big. Take a cue from China. Any one of China’s provinces makes the entire UK, let alone just England, look like a single mid- sized cityregion.

Yet here we are squabbling over which pocket- handkerchiefsized bits of the former county of Yorkshire should delineate the second- level administration of England.

The North as a whole has a significant population, economic and cultural power.

Its economy is far bigger than that of Scotland but with a smaller land- mass; don’t tell me it is too unwieldy to have one government.

It needs co- ordination and regional democracy with the best brains applied to the need for social justice, harmony and balance.

Counties belong to feudal history; not to politics.