Council split won’t help the vulnerable

From: Coun Janet Sanderson, North Yorkshire County Council Executive Member for the Children and Young People’s Service, and Coun Michael Harrison, Executive Member for Adult Services and Health Integration.

IN response to the leader of Richmondshire District Council, Angie Dale, North Yorkshire County Council already delivers 80 per cent of local authority services to residents across the county footprint ( The Yorkshire Post, October 13).

Both Children and Young People’s Services and Adult Services are delivered countywide today, and we cannot see how splitting North Yorkshire in two would improve service delivery for vulnerable groups. Indeed, it would lead to the exact opposite of what she claimed – including breaking up NYCC’s children’s services, the first nationally to be graded outstanding in all aspects by Ofsted. It is recognised as among the best in the country by national experts

The Independent Care Group ( ICG) says the proposal put forward by the county council offers the best opportunity for North Yorkshire to become a centre of excellence for care. ICG chairman Mike Padgham has said effective county- wide services already exist in the delivery of social care and it would seem pointless and unnecessary to dismantle this.

Similarly, an east/ west split would involve significant disruption to York Council’s children’s and adult services. Whilst there will be differing views on the best way to create unitary local government in North Yorkshire, the best way of minimising disruption for vulnerable groups and for safeguarding is through NYCC’s proposal to create a single unitary on the existing council boundary.

From: Edward Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

IS now the time to recreate the boundaries of the old North Riding County Council?

In 1968, I was made redundant as the clerk and financial officer of the former Marton Parish Council, a post I held for five years reporting to the former Stokesley Rural District Council and the former North Riding County Council. Middlesbrough County Borough Council also ceased to exist in 1968 and the areas I had been responsible for, including parts of new Nunthorpe and the old village, came under control of the former Teesside County Borough Council.

Residents of Marton and Nunthorpe say how neglected these areas are, with poor road maintenance and poor public transport. I am sure that other residents of parts of the former North Riding County Council area such as Yarm and Guisborough and East Cleveland

would welcome a return to the old historical boundaries.